Movies Filmed in New York: 40+ Famous Filming Locations You Can Visit

Central Park: the most-filmed location in the world

Start here. Central Park has appeared in more than 300 films — more than any other single location on earth — and the reason is simple: inside its 843 acres you get fountains, bridges, a castle, lakes, meadows and skyline views without a single street closure. Almost every scene below is within a twenty-minute walk of the others, which makes the park the single best movie pilgrimage in New York.

• Bethesda Terrace & Fountain — The park's grand centerpiece, mid-park at 72nd Street. This is where Giselle leads the "That's How You Know" musical number in Enchanted, where the Avengers part ways with Loki at the end of The Avengers, and where John Wick takes a meeting in the lower arcade in John Wick: Chapter 2. The tiled Minton ceiling in that arcade is one of the most photographed interiors in the city. Free, open from dawn until 1 a.m. Our Bethesda guide.

• Bow Bridge — The graceful cast-iron bridge over the Lake, a few steps west of Bethesda. Peter Parker and Mary Jane stand here in Spider-Man 3; it's also in Enchanted and Autumn in New York. Best light is late afternoon, when the skyline reflects in the water. Full guide.
• Gapstow Bridge & the Pond — The small stone bridge at the park's southeast corner (enter at 59th and Fifth) is where Kevin meets the Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2. With the Plaza rising behind it, it's the postcard view of the park. Full guide.
• Wollman Rink — The skating rink just north of the Pond is the setting for the night skate in Serendipity and the heartbreaking scenes of Love Story. Open for skating from late October through March; the rest of the year it's a viewpoint.
• Tavern on the Green — Central Park West at 67th. In Ghostbusters, Louis Tully is chased by the terror dog and pounds on the restaurant's windows while the diners ignore him. It's a working restaurant — reservations recommended — but you can walk the exterior any time. Full guide.
• The Mall & Literary Walk — The park's only straight path, lined with American elms, running from 66th to 72nd Street. The bicycle lesson in Kramer vs. Kramer and the stroll in Maid in Manhattan happen here, along with dozens of rom-com walks.
• Conservatory Water — The model-boat pond near Fifth Avenue and 74th is where the boat race unfolds in Stuart Little. The Alice in Wonderland statue sits just north of it.
• The Loeb Boathouse — On the Lake's east shore; the rowboats and lakeside dining feature in 27 Dresses. Rent a rowboat from April to October to put yourself in the scene.
• Strawberry Fields — Not a film set but a pilgrimage: the "Imagine" mosaic memorial to John Lennon at 72nd and Central Park West, directly across from the Dakota (more on that below). Full guide.

For a scene-by-scene rundown, see our complete guide to Central Park's movie locations. One honest tip: the park is far bigger than first-timers expect, and these spots stretch from 59th to 74th Street. If you want all of them in a single afternoon without the walking, our Celebrity Homes & Movie Locations Tour links them by pedicab, with a guide who tells you exactly where to stand for the shot.

Midtown & Fifth Avenue: the Home Alone 2 trail and the classics

Midtown is where the big-budget New York fantasies get made — the glittering Christmas movies, the Audrey Hepburn classics, the superhero set pieces. Everything here sits on or just off Fifth Avenue between 23rd and 59th Streets, so it's one long, easy walk north.

• The Plaza Hotel — Fifth Avenue at Central Park South. This is where Kevin checks in on his dad's credit card and orders the room-service feast in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It's also the setting of the Plaza-suite showdown in The Great Gatsby (2013). You don't need a room: the lobby, the Palm Court and the Fifth Avenue steps are all open to visitors.

• Tiffany & Co. — 727 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street. The flagship where Audrey Hepburn, coffee and croissant in hand, gazes into the windows in the opening of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Reese Witherspoon's proposal in Sweet Home Alabama was shot inside. Free to browse.
• Rockefeller Center — The tree and the ice rink that bookend Home Alone 2, and where Buddy skates in Elf. The tree is up from late November through early January; the rink runs from October through April. Go after 9 p.m. in December for the thinnest crowds.

• The New York Public Library — Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. The ghost in the stacks opens Ghostbusters; the lions out front survive the deep freeze in The Day After Tomorrow; Carrie's would-be wedding in the Sex and the City movie happens on the steps. Free to enter — go upstairs to the Rose Main Reading Room.
• Grand Central Terminal — 42nd Street at Park Avenue. Cary Grant slips through the Main Concourse in North by Northwest; the Avengers fight across it in The Avengers; Will Smith hunts deer through an abandoned version of it in I Am Legend; and the Gossip Girl pilot opens here. Look up at the celestial ceiling and find the whispering gallery outside the Oyster Bar.

• The Empire State Building — Fifth Avenue at 34th. King Kong (1933 and 2005), An Affair to Remember and Sleepless in Seattle all end on its observation deck, and Buddy visits his father's office here in Elf. Tickets are required for the deck — see how it stacks up against the city's other observation decks.
• The Flatiron Building — 175 Fifth Avenue at 23rd. The Daily Bugle headquarters in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Best photographed from the traffic island in Madison Square.
• Times Square — Giselle climbs out of a manhole into the chaos here in Enchanted, and Tom Cruise runs through an eerily empty version in Vanilla Sky (they shot it at dawn on a Sunday).

Doing the Home Alone 2 stops as a set? Our walkable route is in finding the Home Alone 2 spots, with the Central Park scenes covered in movie magic in Central Park. From late November through the holidays, our Home Alone 2 & Elf Locations Tour runs the whole trail with warm blankets and photo stops.

The Upper East Side: Gossip Girl's kingdom

Old money, Museum Mile, and the most stylish teenagers on television. The Upper East Side runs along Fifth, Madison and Park Avenues north of 59th Street; take the 4/5/6 or the Q.

• The Met steps — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd. Blair Waldorf holds court on these steps in Gossip Girl; it's the show's most recognizable location, and sitting here is free. Inside the museum, the Temple of Dendur is where Harry and Sally rehearse their "pecan pie" routine in When Harry Met Sally, and the Great Hall hosts the gala heist in Ocean's 8.
• Lotte New York Palace — 455 Madison Avenue at 50th. Serena and the van der Woodsens live here in Gossip Girl. The courtyard is open to the public.
• Serendipity 3 — 225 East 60th Street. The dessert parlor where John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale share a frozen hot chocolate in Serendipity. Expect a wait; the frozen hot chocolate is real and enormous.
• Holly Golightly's apartment — 169 East 71st Street. The brownstone where Audrey Hepburn lives in Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's a private residence, so photograph from the sidewalk.
• Museum Mile & the Guggenheim — Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 105th. The Guggenheim's spiral is the end of the opening chase in Men in Black and a set piece in Mr. Popper's Penguins — a good excuse to keep walking north.

For the full Gossip Girl circuit, including the school exteriors and the Bass apartment, see our Gossip Girl filming locations guide.

The Upper West Side: You've Got Mail, Seinfeld and the Dakota

Cross the park and the tone shifts to brownstones, bagel shops and some of the most famous addresses in film. Take the 1/2/3 or the B/C.

• The Dakota — 1 West 72nd Street. The gothic apartment house that plays the Bramford in Rosemary's Baby, and where John Lennon lived and was killed in 1980. It's private, but the 72nd Street gate is one of the most-photographed spots in the city, with Strawberry Fields directly across the street.
• 55 Central Park West — "Spook Central," the apartment tower where Dana lives and Gozer arrives in Ghostbusters. The real building is several stories shorter than the movie version; the top was extended with matte paintings.
• Zabar's — 2245 Broadway at 80th. The gourmet market where Meg Ryan gets stuck in the cash-only line in You've Got Mail. Still family-run, still packed on Sundays. (Café Lalo, the film's café, closed in 2021.)
• The 91st Street Garden — In Riverside Park at 91st Street. The flower garden where Kathleen and Joe finally meet in the last scene of You've Got Mail. Free, and at its best in May and June.
• Tom's Restaurant — 2880 Broadway at 112th. The exterior of "Monk's Café" in Seinfeld. The inside looks nothing like the show (the interiors were shot in Los Angeles), but the neon sign is unmistakable.
• The American Museum of Natural History — Central Park West at 79th. The whole premise of Night at the Museum, though most interiors were built on a soundstage. The Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and the blue whale are real.
• Lincoln Center — Broadway at 65th. Nina spirals across its plaza in Black Swan, and Cher dresses up for the opera here in Moonstruck. The fountain in the main plaza is free to visit day or night.
• The Empire Hotel — 44 West 63rd, beside Lincoln Center. Chuck Bass's hotel in Gossip Girl, with the red rooftop sign that appears in half the show's establishing shots.

This neighborhood pairs naturally with the park's west side: the Dakota, Strawberry Fields and Tavern on the Green are all within four blocks of one another.

The West Village & Downtown: Friends, Sex and the City and When Harry Met Sally

Below 14th Street the streets stop following the grid, and that's exactly why directors love them. This is sitcom and rom-com New York. Take the 1 to Christopher Street–Sheridan Square, or the A/C/E to West 4th.

• The Friends apartment — 90 Bedford Street at Grove Street. The building used for every exterior shot of Monica and Rachel's apartment. The interiors were a soundstage in Los Angeles, and the ground-floor restaurant isn't Central Perk — but the corner is unmistakable.
• The Friends fountain — The one myth to clear up: the fountain from the opening credits is not in New York. It's on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California.
• Carrie Bradshaw's stoop — 66 Perry Street. The brownstone steps that stand in for Carrie's apartment in Sex and the City. It's a private home with a chain across the steps — photograph from the sidewalk and keep it quiet.
• Magnolia Bakery — 401 Bleecker Street. Where Carrie and Miranda eat cupcakes in Sex and the City. The line is long; the cupcake is still the same.
• Washington Square Park — Harry drops Sally off under the arch at the start of When Harry Met Sally, and Robert Neville's townhouse sits on the north side of the square in I Am Legend. Free, lively, and the chess tables at the southwest corner are real.
• Katz's Delicatessen — 205 East Houston Street, Lower East Side. "I'll have what she's having." The table from When Harry Met Sally is marked with a sign. Order the pastrami on rye and don't lose your ticket.
• Hook & Ladder 8 — 14 North Moore Street, Tribeca. The Ghostbusters firehouse — and still a working FDNY station, so enjoy it from the sidewalk. The crew sometimes hangs the logo in the window.
• Little Italy — Mulberry Street. The young Vito Corleone's neighborhood in The Godfather Part II and the stomping ground of Mean Streets. The Feast of San Gennaro in September fills the street with lights.
• Wall Street & the Charging Bull — The Stock Exchange and the streets around it are the backdrop to Wall Street and The Wolf of Wall Street; the Charging Bull at Bowling Green (installed in 1989) is the photo everyone takes. Combine it with the 9/11 Memorial a few blocks north.

These stops are walkable in a half day: start at Katz's, head west through Washington Square to Bedford and Perry Streets, and finish at Hook & Ladder 8.

The bridges, Brooklyn & beyond

Some of the most famous New York shots aren't in Manhattan at all — they're the views back at it.

• The Brooklyn Bridge — Walk it from City Hall. Miranda and Steve reunite at the center in the Sex and the City movie; it stands deserted in I Am Legend; Hugh Jackman's Leopold leaps from it in Kate & Leopold. Free, open 24 hours; go at sunrise for empty frames.
• DUMBO & Washington Street — The Manhattan Bridge framed between brick warehouses, with the Empire State Building visible through the arch. It's the poster image from Once Upon a Time in America and now one of the most photographed corners on earth. Stand at Washington and Water Streets.
• Brooklyn Heights — 19 Cranberry Street is the Castorini family house in Moonstruck, and the Promenade a block away has the skyline view used in dozens of films.
• The Queensboro (Ed Koch) Bridge — The silhouette behind Woody Allen and Diane Keaton on the bench in Manhattan (the bench is at Sutton Place, where 58th Street meets the East River), and where the Green Goblin drops the Roosevelt Island tram in Spider-Man.
• The Staten Island Ferry — Melanie Griffith's commute in the opening of Working Girl, and the ferry Spider-Man tries to hold together in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Free, 25 minutes each way, with the best cheap view of the Statue of Liberty in the city.
• Coney Island — The boardwalk and the Cyclone are the finale of The Warriors, the backdrop of Requiem for a Dream, and the childhood home under the roller coaster in Annie Hall. Take the D, F, N or Q to the end of the line.

If you only do one of these, make it the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise — it's the shot everyone recognizes, and it costs nothing.

How to plan your NYC movie-location day (and is there a tour?)

With more than 40 spots across five neighborhoods, the trick is grouping. Here's how locals would do it:

• Half a day in Midtown and Central Park: Start at the Flatiron, walk north up Fifth Avenue past the Library, Grand Central, Tiffany's and the Plaza, then enter the park at Gapstow Bridge and finish at Bethesda Terrace and Bow Bridge. This one route covers more than fifteen locations.
• Half a day downtown: Katz's, then Washington Square, the Friends apartment, Carrie's stoop, and Hook & Ladder 8.
• A morning on the water: the Staten Island Ferry at sunrise, then walk the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO.

Practical notes: almost every exterior is free. The interiors that charge — the Empire State Building deck, the Met, the Natural History Museum — are worth booking ahead. Private homes (the Friends building, Carrie's stoop, Holly Golightly's brownstone, the Dakota) belong to real residents: stay on the sidewalk, don't block doorways, and keep the noise down. Early morning gives you empty frames; the hour before sunset gives you the best light.

Is there a movie-locations tour in New York City?

Yes — and for the Central Park cluster it's the most efficient option by far, because the park's film spots stretch across more than a mile. Our Celebrity Homes & Movie Locations Tour runs year-round by pedicab, covering the Home Alone 2, Enchanted, Gossip Girl, Spider-Man 3 and Ghostbusters locations plus the homes of the celebrities who live around the park, with a guide who knows exactly where each camera stood. From late November through the holidays, our Home Alone 2 & Elf Locations Tour does the Christmas-movie trail with blankets and photo stops. And if you'd rather simply roll through the park's scenery at your own pace, a Central Park pedicab tour covers the same ground with far less walking.

New York doesn't keep its movie magic behind studio gates — it's out on the sidewalks, in the parks, and on the corners where you're already standing. Pick a neighborhood, cue up the films shot there, and walk straight into the frame. And when you want the stories behind the scenes — plus a guide who knows exactly where to stand for the photo — come ride with us through Central Park's movie locations.