Set-Jetting Through NYC: Manhattan’s Best Filming Locations
Jetsetting? That’s so last century. Today, travelers are set-jetting: visiting seminal filming locations from favorite television shows and movies to walk the path of favorite characters (and snap iconic pictures, of course). Perhaps no other metropolis is so frequently featured as a film or TV character in its own right as New York City. With its historic brownstones, expansive parks, imposing skyscrapers and bridges, you can put yourself in the center of cinematic history by just walking through Manhattan’s neighborhoods.
Some locations are easy to spot (for example, the gold-leaf and constellation-decked ceiling at Grand Central). But thanks to ever-changing facades in the city, others can be trickier to identify, which is why we’ve done the research for you. Below, find the coolest filming locations in Midtown and throughout Manhattan, starting just steps away from Independent Collection Hotels & Resorts properties. Drop in and get ready for your close-up.
Times Square & Midtown Blockbusters
Perhaps nothing exemplifies bright lights, big city more so than Times Square. Whether it’s the gritty version seen in Taxi Driver (1976) or the slick depictions shown in dozens of Marvel and DC superhero movies, including Spider-Man (2002), Iron Man 2 (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Hawkeye (2021).
But perhaps the most infamous use of one of New York City’s busiest pedestrian areas on film (which counts foot traffic as high as 330,000 people per day¹) is the eerily empty depiction of Times Square seen in the opening scene of Vanilla Sky (2001). Reportedly, the scene cost a cool $1 million to make and marks the only time New York City has allowed a filmmaker to shut down Times Square.
But it’s not just blinking billboards and busy sidewalks that send Hollywood packing for the Big Apple. Everything’s outsized in New York and in celluloid; skyscrapers also get their due. A few blocks from Aliz Hotel at West 43rd Street and 6th Avenue, find the route Kendall Roy rides to the fictional Waystar Royco while rapping to Beastie Boys’ “An Open Letter to NYC” for the opening scene of Succession.²
Also nearby: MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue, which served as inspiration for MCU’s Stark Enterprises Building and later, Avengers Tower. The iconic building has been prominently featured in The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and a dozen other MCU films and shows. Though the tower is seen being decimated on film, it’s still standing IRL.³
Grand Central on the Big Screen
Right next door is another filming location that shows off incredible Beaux-Arts architectural style (featuring the symmetry of Roman and Greek classic architecture, made ornate with French, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque-style details): Grand Central Terminal.
The expansive building features prominently in Men in Black (1997), Men in Black II (2002), Carlito’s Way (1993), Hackers (1995), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).⁴ The terminal’s grand concourse is not only home to an opal glass clock valued at more than $20 million, it’s also where audiences first spotted Serena van der Woodsen, bags in hand, in the pilot of Gossip Girl.
Also inside the terminal, The Campbell, a bar straight out of the jazz age, where Gossip Girl’s Chuck frequently imbibed. To find it, ascend the marble staircase toward Vanderbilt Avenue, exit through the doors, and approach The Campbell Terrace on the left.
Pop Culture TV & Rom-Com Destinations
Superfans of the perennial favorite Friends will find the famous exterior of the characters’ apartment building, another short train or cab ride away in the West Village at 90 Bedford Street on the corner of Grove Street. Don’t sweat looking like a tourist when filming yourself; Even Courtney Cox herself couldn’t resist posting an Instagram video of herself in the famous spot when visiting New York.
With The Devil Wears Prada 2 slated for release in the spring of 2026, perhaps there’s no better time to bone up on key shooting locations from the original film, released in 2006. Just around the corner from Midtown’s Hotel 48LEX is the original Smith + Wollensky, the historic steakhouse where a harried Andy Sachs picks up lunch for her discerning boss while simultaneously trying to source a copy of an unpublished Harry Potter manuscript.
If you want to try your own dash from the restaurant to the film’s fictitious Runway Magazine offices up the street at 1221 6th Avenue (at W. 49th Street), be sure to check out the Waldorf Astoria (301 Park Avenue) along the way. It served as a stand-in for The Lindbergh Palace Hotel, Royal’s longtime residence in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)⁵; is where Mad Men’s Don Draper met with Conrad Hilton; and where family lawyer Harrison visits Archbishop Gilday in the 1990s The Godfather Part III.)
Along the way, also keep an eye out for the building that housed another fictitious magazine office, Poise Magazine, from 13 Going on 30 (2004), found at 444 Madison Avenue at E. 49th Street. Also en route to the fabled Runway Magazine offices is Rockefeller Center (W. 49th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues), home to Saturday Night Live and the primary filming location for 30 Rock.
Fifth Avenue Film Royalty
Next, head south to the New York Public Library in Bryant Park on 5th Avenue and E. 42 Street. Its halls, facade, and lion-guarded steps are scenemakers in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), The Whiz (1978), Escape from New York (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Spider-Man (2002), and 13 Going on 30 (2004). But “Sex in the City” lovers will perhaps best remember it best as what Carrie Bradshaw called, “the classic New York landmark that housed all the great love stories” —and the location of Carrie and Big’s would-be wedding in Sex and the City: The Movie (2008).⁶
Continue uptown another 20 minutes to recreate your own Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) moment at the Tiffany & Co. Flagship store. While Holly Golightly had to settle for window shopping with coffee and Danish from a paper bag, today’s girls-about-town can do one better: eggs and caviar, avocado toast (billed as Tartine D’Avocat), parfait, croissant, or tea at Daniel Boulud’s Blue Box Cafe, located inside the store.
Just a few short blocks away, and at the foot of central park is The Plaza Hotel⁷, which served as a reason to go to fisticuffs in Bride Wars (2009); a spendy place of refuge in Home Alone 2 (1992) and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (2013); a backdrop for a Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford’s chance encounter in The Way We Were (1973); and a place for Cary Grant outsmart an abduction in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller North By Northwest (1959).
Central Park Moments
When picturing memorable moments for the classic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally (1989), the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene at Katz’s Deli on the Lower East Side certainly ranks, but for the film’s locations that deliver cinematic (and IRL) beauty, hard to beat the Central Park. Those up for a hike can enter the southeast corner of the park near The Plaza Hotel, then walk 40 or so minutes to its center to find scenes from one of the most romantic strolls captured on film (or for faster access, enter E. 72nd Street at 5th Avenue).
Walk the paths near Bethesda Fountain and Bethesda Terrace to cover same ground as the film’s titular characters and check out the monuments themselves to see where the final scenes of The Avengers (2012) was shot⁸; Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf got married in Gossip Girl; and Mailin Ackerman’s character shares wedding news with Kathryn Higel’s character in 27 Dresses (2008). Also nearby, Central Park Boathouse, the location in which Meg Ryan dines with girlfriends in When Harry Met Sally (1989), and where Carrie Bradshaw meets Big for a disastrous lunch in season 2 of Sex and the City.
Hotels in the Heart of the Action
Aliz Hotel Times Square
Whether looking to recreate famous scenes from action films or see how your favorite characters would have really lived, Aliz Hotel Times Square provides a central jumping off point that delivers all the convenience of Times Square but with a boutique experience that leaves frenetic energy in the streets.
During your stay, take advantage of billion-dollar skyline views befitting Stark Enterprises from the vantage point of the property’s two-story rooftop lounge, Dear Irving on Hudson; train like an action star in the property’s Peloton studio; or grab a discounted Citi Bike pass to soak up sidewalk experiences.
Hotel 48LEX New York
A crawl of iconic Manhattan filming locations can stretch out to all corners of the island, which makes centering your starting point in Midtown a must. Hotel 48LEX not only serves as a central jumping-off point, but is a point of interest itself: the hotel is seen in season 6 of Homeland.
What’s more, the four-diamond property lets you live like the main character in Manhattan, thanks to sleek decor enlivened by contemporary works from New York City artists; a chic lounge that gives penthouse libraries a run for their money; and spacious pied-à-terre style salons and suites, which feature marble bathrooms and floor-to-ceiling windows.
¹https://www.timessquarenyc.org/business-community/market-research-data
³https://marvel-cinematic-universe-guide.fandom.com/wiki/Avengers_Tower
⁴https://onthesetofnewyork.com/mostpopulargrandcentralterminal.html
⁵https://gizmodo.com/a-tour-of-the-royal-tenenbaums-wes-andersons-only-fil-1547227798
⁶https://www.nypl.org/press/popular-movies-filmed-new-york-public-library
⁷https://www.theplazany.com/history/faces-films-moments/
⁸https://mculocationscout.com/2024/09/27/bethesda-terrace-fountain-mcu-location-scout/