Philadelphia in the Movies - PhillyWired.com

From the Philadelphia Story to Unbreakable, Philadelphia has long been a favorite location for movie creators. In 1899, Sigmund Lubin – an optician by trade – opened the U.S.A.’s first real motion picture theater in Philadelphia. Then Lubin got involved not just in showing movies but also in making them. By 1915 his movie studio, located in Philadelphia was one of the largest in the country.

Philadelphia is known among filmmakers as a great place to make movies. It has a great reputation among film industry leaders because of the exceptional resources, talent, materials and locations that are available in the region for filming.

Award-winning directors Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, Twelve Monkeys) and Philadelphian M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) are particularly fond of Philadelphia and have made movies in Philadelphia and its countryside. It was after the completion of the production of Philadelphia that Demme decided to name the movie after the city with which he was so enamored. Also a fan of Philadelphia, M. Night Shymalan has filmed four movies in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. Signs, starring Mel Gibson, Shymalan’s latest film, was filmed in nearby Bucks County.

Visitors to Philadelphia will recognize many sites from internationally famous movies, including Rocky (1975),Rocky II (1978), Rocky III (1981), Rocky V (1990), Blow Out (1980), Trading Places (1982), Witness (1984), Twelve Monkeys (1993), Philadelphia (1993), The Sixth Sense (1999), and Unbreakable (2000), to name a few. In fact, it’s not unusual, during a visit to Philadelphia, to come upon all of the trappings of a movie location shoot, or see a famous star, who is in town making a movie, dining at one of Philadelphia’s fabulous restaurants.

Some of the more notable movie sites in Philadelphia are:

The Philadelphia Museum of Art – One of the most recognizable movie sites in Philadelphia is the steps of this world-famous art museum where Sylvester Stallone ended his famous training run in the movie Rocky. The museum’s steps andPhiladelphia skyline were also featured in Rocky II and Rocky III. Embedded in concrete at the top of the steps are “Rocky’s” footprints, indicating where he stood as he gazed out over the city. Today, visitors recreate the famed Rocky run and are rewarded with one of the city’s most spectacular views.

Lord & Taylor department store – Built in 1861, the nation’s first department store and its soaring atrium provided the set for the film Mannequin (1986), starring Andrew McCarthy, and its sequel, Mannequin on the Move (1990). In the film Blow-Out, John Travolta crashed into one of the store’s display windows at the corner of Market Street and Penn Square.

Old City – The antiquity of Philadelphia’s first business district again was brought to life when set designers transformed North 3rd Street into 1880s Cincinnati for the movie Beloved (1997), starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

South Philadelphia – The Italian Market was made famous in the first of the Rocky movies in 1975, and a statue of Rocky that was dedicated to him in Rocky III sits outside of the First Union Spectrum (a sports and entertainment complex) in South Philadelphia. The neighborhoods of South Philadelphia were also the site of the film Two Bits, starring Al Pacino (1993) and scenes from The Sixth Sense, with Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.

City Hall – The seat of Philadelphia’s government became the venue of intense litigation in Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. The building’s remarkable architecture and recognizable clock tower also could be seen in Twelve Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt; Blow-Out, with John Travolta; and Up Close and Personal (1993), starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford.

Avenue of the Arts – Just a few blocks from City Hall, at Broad and Sansom streets, is the First Union Bank, formerly the Fidelity Bank, home of the law offices of Duke and Duke in the film Trading Places. A few blocks away, and across the street, is the Academy of Music. This authentic 19th-century opera house was used for the opening scenes from The Age of Innocence, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Rittenhouse Square – You don’t have to walk far around this historic park located in fashionable Rittenhouse Row to remember Eddie Murphy’s role in Trading Places, also starring Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. Andrew McCarthy visited his girlfriend near the Dorchester Apartments on the southwest corner of the square in the movie Mannequin. Nearby, along Walnut Street in the Rittenhouse Row district, diners at the Striped Bass restaurant will recognize it from a scene in The Sixth Sense where Bruce Willis and his movie wife share a table on their anniversary.

30th Street Station – This magnificent rail hub appears in the opening sequence of Witness, the film in which Harrison Ford later went undercover in Lancaster’s Amish country to investigate a murder. Several scenes from Trading Places also were filmed here.

Manayunk – M. Night Shyamalan’s recent film Unbreakable was shot at several Manayunk locations, including Pretzel Park and the United States Hotel. The film stars Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Wright Penn.

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