There are very patient people and for everything. But watch out for movie and travel lovers : they can do anything! Such is the case with a recent post on the NetCredit blog; From this site (dedicated to making personal loans) they set out to compile in very illustrative images the most popular places for filming movies.
Movie Shooting: The Most Popular Locations
We love movies and series and, of course, traveling. Beyond the performances and the plots of the films, if we are left with something, it is with the places where the films have been shot. This is how we have stayed, for example, with the hotels and restaurants that have appeared in our favorite titles. But what about the cities?
Many times we identify titles easily by the places where the movies are filmed. For example, Only in House 2 we know very well that it is where the protagonist gets lost in New York. Or the mythical (and one of our favorites) Come, Pray, Ama , which we know by heart was shot in Rome, some small town in India and Bali. And we associate the titles with the cities that, of course, we dream of visiting.
But we are not an encyclopedia, no matter how moviegoers we are. We are capable, perhaps, of identifying emblematic buildings such as The White House, in Washington DC or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or Big Ben in London. To name a few. And what happens to those with whom we do not stay? Those magical places that “sound like something to us”, but we can’t get to know their name.
Well, at NetCredit they took on the task of making very precise sheets where you show us the most mythical (and crowded) places for filming movies. They have done it based on the IMDb portal: here they have been able to discover which are the main movie destinations that appear the most in the credits.
Useful facts about shooting movies
The conclusions of the curious “study” point to Central Park in New York, as the place that appears the most in the movies: it has 532 film credits (later we will mention some titles). On this side of the Atlantic, you will be surprised to know that London’s Trafalgar Square is the place that appears the most in the movies: 131 films have been shot in this iconic London square. Kabul in Afghanistan appears in 113 films. The countries with the highest number of films that have been shot in their territories are, of course, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Afghanistan.
The United States, the country with the largest filming of films
We expected no less from the United States. Of course, it is not the largest producer of films in the world: for several years, Bollywood has produced many more than Hollywood. An average of 700 titles are released in English each year. So it’s no surprise, just as we’re not surprised that Central Park, in New York, has appeared 532 times… Few of them seem to us!
In case you get nostalgic for this huge Manhattan park, we recommend you see some classics like Annie Hall (iconic Diane Keaton and Woody Allen) Breakfast with Diamonds (unforgettable Audrey Hepburn ). And surely in any romantic comedy you also find the park, as for example in Serendipity .
Behind Central Park are Bronson Canyon, the Mojave Desert, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica in California. In the seventh place in the ranking within the US we find ourselves, surprisingly, at Times Square.
European countries are not far behind
We already anticipated it: Trafalgar Square in London is one of the favorite destinations of filmmakers. It is followed by Picadilly Circus (with 106 credits), Hyde Park (93 appearances) and Heathrow Airport (89 credits). It seems that after America, everyone wants to get to London! Of course, we also find the London Bridge or the Royal Albert Hall on the list.
What is a pleasant surprise is to find Spain among the favorite places of film directors. Cabo de Gata heads the list in our country; It is not for less, since the Almería is considered to be the only desert in Europe. You had no idea? Well, run to see some of the movies shot in this popular desert! For example, the Assassin’s Creed fiasco (with Fassbender and Cotillard ), or Exudus: Gods and Kings with Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister for friends). Even the last of the Terminator was shot here! If you are more classic, Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn.
Of course, we cannot fail to mention the iconic Eiffel Tower, which ranks number 1 in its country in terms of filmmaking , but does not get the first place in the European ranking. Other popular sites in Europe are the Red Square in Moscow, the Acropolis in Athens, St. Mark’s Square in Italy or the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco.
Chile and Ecuador, the favorites in Latin America
Chile and Ecuador are tied on IMDb. Each has appeared 50 times in the credits. In Chile, the favorite place for filmmakers is the Atacama desert. Up to here James Bond traveled on occasion. Ecuador, for its part, is famous among the celluloid of the cinema thanks to the emblematic Galapagos Islands. In Argentina, the favorites are the Iguazu Falls. And Peru? Yes, the mystic Machu Picchu, also appears within the classification as one of the favorites to record. And of course, Brazil enters the recognitions thanks to the Amazon.
No, Egypt has not made the largest film shoot in Africa
We thought the Pyramids of Giza would be the favorites. It happens that Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is the preferred site in Africa. We do not know if it is for Hollywood or for Nollywood (the Nigerian rival of the United States). But the pyramids are dropped from the list and in their place appears the Karnak temple in Luxor as the favorite Egyptian destination. Death on the Nile, The Spy Who Loved Me and The Return of the Mummy have been filmed in Karnak.
Other destinations that often appear are Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. They even have their own movie! This is The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a 1952 classic starring Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck.
Middle East and Central Asia
We already anticipated it: Kabul, in Afghanistan, is one of the favorite destinations, particularly for making documentaries that show the reality of the war. Damascus, Syria, also appears on the list for the same reasons as Kabul. Although both have a lot of cinematographic history, at the moment they only go to them to record the consequences of the wars. Another key place in the region? Petra in Jordan! Let’s not forget that a very important scene from Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was filmed here with Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in the cast.
Rest of Asia and Oceania
India and Japan top the list. India, for its imposing and majestic Taj Mahal (in addition to the fact that India is the cradle of Bollywood and they produce more than 1000 films a year). In Japan the preferred destination is Mount Fuji. And in Oceania? We cannot forget the Sydney Opera House in Australia . We have seen her appear in many films such as Mission Impossible II and Power Rangers : The Movie (1995).
