When we think of where motion pictures are filmed, California and New York quickly come to mind. Scenes shot at the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building have become iconic in U.S. culture.
For the last 100 years, Hollywood — whose name is written in big, bold letters on the Hollywood hillside — has been the location for most of the films we have on our bucket list. Southern California became the mecca of films because of its favorable weather as well as the availability of cheap labor. And California was also beyond the reach of celebrated inventor Thomas Edison, who controlled all aspects of the film industry that was born on the East Coast.
If the movies aren’t filmed on the West Coast, the studios tend to go to New York to take advantage of some America’s enduring images, such as Central Park and the Statue of Liberty.
Even so, the film-going public, as well as the motion picture artistic community, demands authenticity. While going on the road comes with a price, there is no substitute for the screen-filling landscapes in Arizona and Utah that made westerns such as “The Searchers” unforgettable, or the gritty docks operated by longshoremen in Hoboken, New Jersey, that made “On the Waterfront” a classic. The film industry’s need for genuine locations also means more dollars in state coffers.
Each state has unique characteristics that make it attractive to filmmakers, and with that in mind, 24/7 Wall St. has tapped various resources to find out what is the best movie filmed in every state.
Click to see the best movie filmed in every state.
Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
1. Alabama
> Best Movie: To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
> Starring: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
> Director: Robert Mulligan
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $172,188,552
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
2. Alaska
> Best Movie: Into the Wild (2007)
> Starring: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
> Director: Sean Penn
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $24,407,200
> Favorable reviews: 89% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
3. Arizona
> Best Movie: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
> Starring: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
> Director: Sergio Leone
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Miramax
4. Arkansas
> Best Movie: Sling Blade (1996)
> Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter
> Director: Billy Bob Thornton
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $48,888,900
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Miramax
5. California
> Best Movie: Pulp Fiction (1994)
> Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
> Director: Quentin Tarantino
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $233,050,000
> Favorable reviews: 96% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
6. Colorado
> Best Movie: Badlands (1973)
> Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri
> Director: Terrence Malick
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
7. Connecticut
> Best Movie: Strangers on a Train (1951)
> Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
> Director: Alfred Hitchcock
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $121,245,283
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
8. Delaware
> Best Movie: Dead Poets Society (1989)
> Starring: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles
> Director: Peter Weir
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $221,661,400
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
9. Florida
> Best Movie: Cool Hand Luke (1967)
> Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D. Cannon
> Director: Stuart Rosenberg
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $124,065,963
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
10. Georgia
> Best Movie: Black Panther (2018)
> Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira
> Director: Ryan Coogler
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $639,436,600
> Favorable reviews: 79% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
11. Hawaii
> Best Movie: Jurassic Park (1993)
> Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $791,369,600
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
12. Idaho
> Best Movie: Pale Rider (1985)
> Starring: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Sydney Penny
> Director: Clint Eastwood
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $107,084,200
> Favorable reviews: 83% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
13. Illinois
> Best Movie: The Dark Knight (2008)
> Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine
> Director: Christopher Nolan
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $681,789,600
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
14. Indiana
> Best Movie: Breaking Away (1979)
> Starring: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley
> Director: Peter Yates
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $60,072,000
> Favorable reviews: 88% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures
15. Iowa
> Best Movie: The Straight Story (1999)
> Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane Galloway Heitz, Joseph A. Carpenter
> Director: David Lynch
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $11,000,200
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
16. Kansas
> Best Movie: Paper Moon (1973)
> Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
> Director: Peter Bogdanovich
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $160,436,023
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
17. Kentucky
> Best Movie: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
> Starring: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens-Liptak
> Director: Michael Apted
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $229,270,600
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
18. Louisiana
> Best Movie: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
> Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
> Director: Steve McQueen
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $63,320,000
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
19. Maine
> Best Movie: Forrest Gump (1994)
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
> Director: Robert Zemeckis
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $721,048,700
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
20. Maryland
> Best Movie: The Social Network (2010)
> Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara
> Director: David Fincher
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $111,217,800
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
21. Massachusetts
> Best Movie: The Departed (2006)
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
> Director: Martin Scorsese
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $184,708,800
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
22. Michigan
> Best Movie: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
> Starring: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell
> Director: Otto Preminger
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
23. Minnesota
> Best Movie: A Simple Plan (1998)
> Starring: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe
> Director: Sam Raimi
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $29,484,900
> Favorable reviews: 81% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Spyglass Entertainment
24. Mississippi
> Best Movie: The Insider (1999)
> Starring: Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora
> Director: Michael Mann
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $52,246,200
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
25. Missouri
> Best Movie: Gone Girl (2014)
> Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry
> Director: David Fincher
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $185,609,800
> Favorable reviews: 87% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
26. Montana
> Best Movie: The Shining (1980)
> Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
> Director: Stanley Kubrick
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $150,215,400
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Paramount Vantage
27. Nebraska
> Best Movie: Nebraska (2013)
> Starring: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk
> Director: Alexander Payne
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,092,900
> Favorable reviews: 83% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of RKO Radio Pictures
28. Nevada
> Best Movie: Out of the Past (1947)
> Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
> Director: Jacques Tourneur
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
29. New Hampshire
> Best Movie: On Golden Pond (1981)
> Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon
> Director: Mark Rydell
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $372,564,100
> Favorable reviews: 87% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
30. New Jersey
> Best Movie: On the Waterfront (1954)
> Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
> Director: Elia Kazan
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $195,840,000
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
31. New Mexico
> Best Movie: Ace in the Hole (1951)
> Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
> Director: Billy Wilder
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 93% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
32. New York
> Best Movie: The Godfather (1972)
> Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
> Director: Francis Ford Coppola
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $721,974,200
> Favorable reviews: 98% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of United Artists
33. North Carolina
> Best Movie: Being There (1979)
> Starring: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
> Director: Hal Ashby
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $110,370,300
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Gramercy Pictures
34. North Dakota
> Best Movie: Fargo (1996)
> Starring: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
> Director: Joel Coen
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $50,663,100
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
35. Ohio
> Best Movie: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
> Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler
> Director: Frank Darabont
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $61,139,900
> Favorable reviews: 98% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
36. Oklahoma
> Best Movie: The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
> Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin
> Director: John Ford
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 88% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
37. Oregon
> Best Movie: Stand by Me (1986)
> Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell
> Director: Rob Reiner
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $129,379,700
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Orion Pictures
38. Pennsylvania
> Best Movie: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
> Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney, Kasi Lemmons
> Director: Jonathan Demme
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $285,087,900
> Favorable reviews: 95% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Focus Features
39. Rhode Island
> Best Movie: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
> Starring: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray
> Director: Wes Anderson
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $53,022,200
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
40. South Carolina
> Best Movie: Full Metal Jacket (1987)
> Starring: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Baldwin
> Director: Stanley Kubrick
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $108,839,800
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
41. South Dakota
> Best Movie: North by Northwest (1959)
> Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
> Director: Alfred Hitchcock
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $238,950,000
> Favorable reviews: 94% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
42. Tennessee
> Best Movie: Nashville (1975)
> Starring: Keith Carradine, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Shelley Duvall
> Director: Robert Altman
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $44,709,400
> Favorable reviews: 84% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
43. Texas
> Best Movie: The Last Picture Show (1971)
> Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson
> Director: Peter Bogdanovich
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $162,085,400
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of United Artists
44. Utah
> Best Movie: Stagecoach (1939)
> Starring: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
> Director: John Ford
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 86% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
45. Vermont
> Best Movie: Beetlejuice (1988)
> Starring: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Annie McEnroe
> Director: Tim Burton
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $164,631,300
> Favorable reviews: 82% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
46. Virginia
> Best Movie: Argo (2012)
> Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
> Director: Ben Affleck
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $155,545,100
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
47. Washington
> Best Movie: The Deer Hunter (1978)
> Starring: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
> Director: Michael Cimino
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $192,149,700
> Favorable reviews: 92% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of United Artists
48. West Virginia
> Best Movie: The Night of the Hunter (1955)
> Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
> Director: Charles Laughton
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): N/A
> Favorable reviews: 90% of audiences
Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
49. Wisconsin
> Best Movie: Major League (1989)
> Starring: Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Margaret Whitton
> Director: David S. Ward
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $115,148,100
> Favorable reviews: 84% of audiences
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Source: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company
50. Wyoming
> Best Movie: Django Unchained (2012)
> Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
> Director: Quentin Tarantino
> Domestic box office gross (inflation-adjusted): $187,664,300
> Favorable reviews: 91% of audiences
Some states are inextricably linked to some of the most famous movies of all time. Much of “The Wizard of Oz” takes place in Kansas, and Georgia will always be associated with “Gone With the Wind.” However, neither movie was filmed in those states. Even so, both of those states have played host to high-profile films, including the Oscar-winning movie “Paper Moon” in Kansas and the blockbuster “Black Panther” in Georgia.
All states see the value of having movies shot in their state in terms of job creation and other economic benefits. This is why states have set up film commissions or offices with robust websites touting the advantages of filming a movie in their state.
According to statistics from the Motion Picture Association of America in 2016, California employs 190,000 people in the film and television industry and pays about $20 billion in wages. No surprise there. However, the MPAA said Georgia, the site for many scenes for the civil-rights-themed drama “Selma,” employs 25,700 people in the film and television industry and pays $1.7 billion in wages. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois all employ more than 10,000 people in the film and television industries.
In addition to choosing a production location based on aesthetic relevance and convenience – the primary reason so many films are shot in California – many locations are chosen because of financial incentives states offer primarily in the form of tax rebates. Georgia, for instance, has taken a number of steps in order to recruit film and television producers, becoming a major base for the industry. Other southeastern states, such as the Carolinas, have made efforts in recent years to follow suit.
States such as New Jersey, where the film industry started, suspended an incentive program to induce filmmakers to shoot in the Garden State in 2010. However, today the state is trying to regenerate the film and television industry. There is a new bill before the state Senate that provides for $75 million in tax credits for films and $10 million for digital media.
To determine the best movie filmed in every state, 24/7 Wall St. created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes average audience rating, and Internet Movie Database average user rating. To be considered, each film needed to have at least 5,000 Rotten Tomatoes user ratings, 10 approved tomatometer critic reviews, and 10,000 IMDb user ratings.
We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating.
We then used each movie’s filming locations, as listed on IMDb, to assign a film to each state. 24/7 Wall St. assigned one state to films shot across multiple states in order to maximize the number of high-rated films on our list.
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