Home Filmology
Did you know that Boston is the home of over 400 movies and TV shows?
From recent blockbusters such as Mystic River and Good Will Hunting to classics such as The Verdict and Thomas Crown Affair, Boston has long been a favorite of Hollywood producers. And let’s not forget the TV magic of Cheers, Ally McBeal, The Practice and many more.
Defining a Boston Movie
In general terms, any movie or TV show that depicts Boston is considered a Boston movie, even ifit was not shot in Boston. For example, The Out-of-Towners (1999) with Steve Martin contains a number of scenes that were supposed to take place in Boston but were filmed elsewhere. We consider that a Boston movie.
Boston includes all its Boston communities such as South Boston, East Boston, Charlestown,Beacon Hill and so forth. Although not technically Boston, we also include Cambridge because of its close proximity and close relationship to Boston filming. Cambridge is the home of Harvard University and MIT, where a number of movies have been filmed.
We drew the line at movies that were made in the greater Boston area but have no scenes depicted in Boston. The Perfect Storm was made in Gloucester, Massachusetts but no Boston scenes are depicted; thus it's not a Boston movie.
Research and Sources
So how did we get all this great information? To sum it up, lots of research, interviews and movie watching. Some is documented on this website but much is saved for our Movie Tours.
We learn new information EVERY day. If you have any insider information you would like to share, email info@bostonmovietours.net. We’d love to hear from you.
Research
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is the KING of movie sites and really helped us identify Boston movies.
- If IMDB is the king of movie sites, TV Tome is the king of TV sites.
- Local newspapers such as the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald have documented many of the movie location details.
- Ty Burr’s Boston Globe article titled Reel Boston is probably the best Boston movie article ever.
- The Numbers is a great resource for U.S. box office data.
- The City of Boston’s Film Highlights web site provided numerous Boston filming locations.
- Numerous other movie and TV web sites were very helpful.
Interviews
From impromptu meetings to scheduled interviews, much of the behind-the-scenes information has come from people with first hand Boston movie location knowledge.
And you never know where you are going to get insider information. For example, while doing Good Will Hunting research at the L Street Tavern, we starting talking about how a scene in The Verdict (Paul Newman) was filmed around the corner at the WF Spencer Funeral home. And then a voice chimed in from a few bar stools down, “You got it wrong. That was filmed at my funeral home.” By chance, Jackie O’brien was in the L Street Tavern and proceeded to tell us how the producers loved the inside of his funeral home but liked the outside of WF Spencer funeral home. So they actually filmed the scene at multiple locations.
- Robin Dawson and Laura Yellen of the Mass Film Bureau spent many hours with us recounting their movie making experiences. Over the past 15 years, they have helped bring dozens of movies to Massachusetts.
- The Woods family, owners of the L Street Tavern gave us some great Good Will Hunting stories.
- Rich Raymond loved to talk about how he put the rug in the East Boston company that doubled as the gumball factory in The Brink’s Job.
- Long time Massachusetts film office expert John Alzapiedi gave us plenty of great stories.
- Location scout Charlie Harrington shared some good Amistad and Good Will Hunting stories.
- Countless others have supplied behind-the-scenes information.
Movie Watching
Watching Boston movies is a never ending process (and a fun one). We have not watched all 400 but we have watched a bunch. From freeze framing to zooming, we’ve identified hundreds of Boston movie filming locations.
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