Find Filming locations to rent in Chicago, IL

About Chicago

Chicago, Illinois is also known as the Windy City and the third-largest city in the United States. Home to the world first skyscraper (not to mention countless others), the city features nearly 30 miles of lakefront and more than 20 beaches.

Home to a vast number of people (current estimates say in the ballpark of 2.6 million people), with high-quality infrastructure, and many attractions, Chicago is a city of dreams.

It also happens to be an excellent spot to host a film shoot. With over 13,000 jobs that directly support the film industry, and an abundance of venues to shoot from, filming in Chicago is both highly desirable and highly sought out.

It may not have the big-city reputations and populations of New York and Los Angeles but Chicago’s not far behind and holds its own when it comes to towering skyscrapers, traffic jams, and culture-packed neighborhoods.

And, with an array of film services, from professional studios, to one-of-a-kind venues, to event planners and caterers, it's easy to see why film makers opt to shoot at least one scene here.

Chicago: Seen On-Screen

You’ve can catch various Chicago backdrops in hit movies and TV shows, including
"When Harry Met Sally," "Backdraft," "Music Box," "Home Alone," "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off," "The Break-Up," "Risky Business," "Road to Perdition," "The Dark Knight," "The Color of Money" (with scenes shot in Chicago and Atlantic City), "My Best Friend’s Wedding," "The Fugitive," and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." The big-screen list goes on and on for this Midwestern metropolis.

Production Options in Chicago

Chicago sits on 234 square miles of parks, hotels, restaurants, attractions, and more. Not to mention hundreds of film-friendly venues and production services that can help you make your film shoot just right.

When it comes to filming locations in the Windy City, you have plenty of places to stage your scenes, whether you need a lake view, a metropolis skyline, or a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Film Studios

Chicago hosts a number of film and production studios, fully equipped with lighting, state-of-the-art equipment, multipurpose rooms, and creative space for film teams and independent artists. Many offer their own professional film services and can help capture the perfect scene.

Incredible Backdrops

Numerous parks and vantage points in Chicago are both functional and unique and make excellent film shoot locations.

With Lake Michigan to the east, massive skyscrapers like the Willis Tower in Downtown Chicago, the bustling Wrigley Field on the city’s North Side, N. Wacker Ave, and the Art Institute of Chicago on the famed Michigan Avenue, you’ll find magnificent views wherever you look.

Industrial & Commercial Spaces

As a city formerly made up of factories, Chicago has plenty of empty warehouses and industrial spaces that can be uniquely designed to fit any theme, scene, or aesthetic possible.

Filming a chase scene? Plan a film shoot (with permission and permits, of course) near one of the five interstate systems running throughout the city.

Have a horror film or classic crime drama in the works? You'll find plenty of alleys, bridges, and parking garages to stage your scenes. And you won’t be the first film maker to shoot scary movies here. Slasher film “Candyman” and cult classic “Child’s Play” were both filmed in Chicago.

Many venues and film production services can also help you customize the decor, space, and logistics to fit your unique needs and scenes.

One-of-a-kind Settings

The city of Chicago is as stunning a backdrop as ever. And with an abundance of colorful spaces, industrial buildings, top-notch mansions, and funky studios and lofts, there’s no shortage of unique venues to choose from.

The versatile scenery and Chicago skyline have even provided settings to simulate the fantastic, fictional Gotham City in Christopher Nolan’s "The Dark Knight."

Famous Buildings, Neighborhoods, and attractions

Nothing ties together the Chicago theme and pays homage to past films like the well-known outdoor spaces, buildings and brands locals, visitors, and movie watchers have come to know and love (like the "Blues Brothers" Soul Food Café, which sadly, was demolished in the '90s).

Lake Michigan, Millennium Park, the former IBM Building, Canal St, N. Broadway, Daley Plaza, Washington St, and the Chicago Hilton are just some of the sites and settings that make this city distinct and have been featured in films like "My Best Friend's Wedding," "The Fugitive," and "Road to Perdition."

The award-winning, Chicag0-based "Shameless" series is set in the highly recognizable Wicker Park neighborhood in the city's West Town district and that's not the only screen time these streets have had; "High Fidelity" starring John Cusack and NBC's "Chicago Fire," "Chicago P.D.," and "Chicago Med" TV series' often features scenes filmed in Wicker Park.

Production Companies in Chicago

Not only is there an abundance of small (but reputable) production companies in Chicago, but there are a also few larger local ones as well, that have contributed to well-known blockbuster movies.

Given the city’s scenery, accessibility, and talented professionals, it’s no wonder film makers zone in on Chicago when looking for movie locations.

Chicago Studio City

Chicago Studio City is a full-service studio with several sound stages. They offer a range of equipment and experienced staff to assist with production needs. Their work can be seen in Chicago classics like "The Barber Shop" and many other films.

Shatterglass Films

Shatterglass is dedicated to producing high-quality, memorable stories that will reach a variety of audiences, and assist in developing stories from concept to completion. You can see their work in several movies including "A Death of Innocence" and "Revival."

Richter Studios

Richter Studios began as a simple 2D animation studio and has evolved into a full-service production company that has worked on over 11,000 films. They’ve worked with Ludacris and on a few Star Wars-themed productions.

Pros and Cons of Filming in Chicago

Is filming in Chicago right for you? Consider a few of the advantages and disadvantages of a having a film shoot in Chicago.

Advantages

• Tax Incentives
  The tax break is one of the biggest attractions of filming in Chicago. The Illinois Film Production Tax Credit Act gives a tax break of thirty percent or more for certain expenses.
  
  

• Local Crews
  There’s no shortage of local crew members because filming in Chicago has been booming for years. More work has brought more and more employees.
  
  

• Easy Obtainable Film Permits
  Acquiring a film permit is fairly straightforward. Simply follow the steps to apply and pay for a permit to use movie locations in the city. Then, provide a certificate of insurance, and notify neighboring residents and businesses.

Disadvantages

• It's Windy
  Outdoor production can be unpredictable. Chicago holds up its nickname, the Windy City. You never know when a cold gust of quick wind will sweep through and weather conditions have been known to cause production disruptions quite a bit.
  
  

• Heavy Traffic
  While walking to and from Chicago is a great option, vehicle traffic has a lot to be desired at times. Driving from the city’s south side to suburbs to the north like Lincoln Park can take over an hour by car during peak travel times. On the plus side, if you need a traffic jam in your movie scene, you'll have lots of opportunities and locations around town to capture the perfect street shot.
  
  

• Difficult Parking
  Parking can be just as difficult as traffic at times. There’s a bit of paid and parallel parking to be done, especially in well-traveled spots like Michigan Ave, Wacker Drive, Wabash Ave, and other downtown Chicago streets.

Famous Chicago Filming Locations

Check out these famous Chicago film locations to stage your scenes in the Windy City, or to find inspiration for your one-of-a-kind Chicago film shoot.

The Chicago Board of Trade

The Chicago Board of Trade is in the heart of Chicago’s Loop district and was a backdrop in the classic 1986 crime drama, "The Untouchables." It can also be seen briefly in "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off."

The Old Main Post Office

The Old Main Post Office, a local historical landmark, was shown in 2005’s "Batman Begins" and again in 2008, in "The Dark Knight," capturing the series' Gotham City aesthetic.

O’Hare International Airport

One of Chicago’s top movie locations, O’Hare International Airport has been featured in tons of films and TV shows. It’s seen in “Risky Business,” when Joel’s parents depart, in the famous “Home Alone” scene as the McCallister family races to catch their flight, and again in "Home Alone 2" , as the McCallister family racing through the terminals as they searched for their missing child, Kevin. And you can also see the famous McCallister home from the original "Home Alone" a short drive north of the Chicago in the small suburb of Winnetka. “Prison Break,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” and “U.S. Marshalls” also have scenes filmed at O’Hare.

Wacker Drive

One of the Windy City’s most recognizable roadways, Wacker Drive runs through Downtown Chicago along the Chicago River and encircles most of the Loop District. It’s one of the top Chicago filming locations and has been featured in films like "The Blues Brothers," "Batman Begins," and "The Dark Knight."

Union Station

Union Station is downtown in the Near West Side district and has been a popular Chicago shooting location for filmmakers. Its modern-industrial aesthetic provides the perfect backdrop for a range of shots and scenes and has been featured in dozens of famous films, including "The Untouchables," "Man of Steel," and the Johnny Depp classic "Public Enemies."

10 Iconic Filming Locations in Chicago

Written by: Sofia Voss

The Windy City is often called the Second City, the name of Chicago’s most famous comedy troupe. Giggster looks at iconic films shot in Chicago.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

When thinking of the intersection between major U.S. cities and film, images of New York and Los Angeles are the first to come to mind—and for good reason. Outside of being the two biggest cities in America, both have become a haven for trend-setting, critically acclaimed films and filmmakers.

Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” captures the energy of 1980s NYC culture, while films like “La La Land” and “Sunset Boulevard” channel the quirks of Los Angeles and the film industry.

That being said, the third most populous city in the United States surely deserves the same kind of credit for its filmmaking and cultural significance. Chicago was a leader in independent film production and film patronage throughout the early 1900s.

Even after, when Hollywood was established as the center for filmmaking, Chicago remained vital in its extensive film distribution and theater chains. The 1980s saw the resurgence of filmmaking in Chicago, thanks to hit films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Blues Brothers” and things have only grown since then.

To honor Chicago’s rich film history, Giggster researched 10 famous film locations—complete with addresses—that you can visit, from a train station in the Loop to a forested glass house on the outskirts of town.

Columbia Pictures

The Younger’s new house in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’

- Location: 4930 W. Hirsch St.

While this house fits snugly in its Austin, Chicago, neighborhood, its iconic use in the film “A Raisin in the Sun” elevates its status from quaint home to racial status symbol.

Based on the famous play by Lorraine Hansberry, this 1961 film follows an African American family called the Youngers as they make plans to move up economically and socially from the inequity and segregation of Chicago's South Side.

When the family settles on buying a house in an upscale, all-white neighborhood, the Youngers are met headfirst by racist neighbors determined to keep the family out.

The home on Hirsch Street the Youngers plan to move into evolves beyond a physical place for them to stay, becoming a metaphor for the Youngers' dreams and the societal status of Black Americans in the 1960s.

Deliberately shot in black and white, the scenes in the home are often lit with a medium-to-high contrast to illustrate the narrative tension further.

Austin is now a predominantly Black neighborhood, but was mostly white at the time of filming; in fact, white families in the area at the time protested the idea of an African American movie being shot in their neighborhood.

Maan/Caan Productions

Green Mill Cocktail Lounge from ‘Thief’

- Location: 4802 N. Broadway

“Thief” is a critically acclaimed, neo-noir following one man’s safecracking life of crime. The gritty bar featured in the movie, now referred to as the Green Mill, was once the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge with a notorious, 100-plus-years history.

Names associated with the lounge in its early days include gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Jack McGurn. One of the bar's more notable moments involved comedian Joe E. Lewis getting brutally attacked.

The Green Mill is located in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood and is one of the area’s most sought-after attractions for tourists and film buffs.

Warner Bros. Entertainment

The chase scene tunnel from ‘The Dark Knight’

- Location: Lower Wacker Drive

It’s understood that the fictional city of Gotham from the extensive Batman universe is a tribute to New York City—but that didn’t stop director Christopher Nolan from finding inspiration for his Gotham in Chicago.

Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” was a critical success, far surpassing its status as a comic book movie, with famed film critic Roger Ebert calling it a “haunted film” and “engrossing tragedy.”

One of its more haunting moments is the chase scene between Batman, Gotham PD, and the Joker, in which the latter is attempting to murder politician Harvey Dent.

This chase was filmed in Chicago’s Lower Wacker Drive, which is famous, or infamous, for its barren concrete construction, allure to drag racers, and being so difficult to navigate that even navigation apps didn't work until around 2018.

These elements, in addition to the cinematography of “The Dark Knight,” combine to create one of the most disorienting, creepy, and adrenaline-inducing car chases on screen.

Universal Pictures

The bridge from the bridge jump in ‘The Blues Brothers’

- Location: 95th Street Bridge

John Landis’s musical comedy “The Blues Brothers” is #8 in Forbes’ list of films that destroyed the most cars, coming in at a whopping 104 cars wrecked during production (60 of which were cop cars). However, the first major car stunt of the movie does not end in the vehicular wreckage that becomes the norm,—even if it should have.

Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) and Jake Blues (John Belushi), on their way back home after Jake is released from prison, drive their repurposed cop car the “Bluesmobile” over Chicago’s 95th Street Bridge as the two sections lift to make way for a boat passage below. The pair use the bridge as a massive ramp in an absurdly large jump.

The bridge still stands, albeit bearing different color from its appearance in the film.

Universal Pictures

The Cabrini Rowhouses from ‘Candyman’

- Location: 900 N. Cleveland Ave.

While “Candyman” is a horror film about the hook-handed ghost of a formerly enslaved man, the film’s depiction of the Cabrini-Green Homes of Chicago is firmly based on reality.

Housing projects were originally created as a federal response to the unethical living conditions of the lower class in major cities. With time and severe budget cuts, however, these projects and the people in them were largely left to their own devices. Cabrini-Green was a real project in North Side Chicago and a notorious example of how racism contributed to the downfall of housing projects.

Despite many projects being torn down, the original Rowhouses of Cabrini where “Candyman” was filmed are still standing today.

Paramount Pictures

Cameron’s Highland Park house in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’

- Location: 370 Beech St.

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” filmed several classic scenes in the iconic home of Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), including the one where fake-sick Ferris (Matthew Broderick) bullies real-sick Cameron into his schemes, and the emotional climax of the film in which Cameron has a breakdown and wrecks his father’s beloved, classic Ferrari. Located in the desirable Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Cameron’s house borders Lake Michigan north of downtown Chicago.

The home, featuring large, transparent window panes, stands in as a kind of prison for Cameron who can see everything yet do nothing. On a practical level, the windows are the result of the mid-century modern style—the same style a 2011 realtor blamed for the home's lack of buyers.

Touchstone Pictures

The Atlantic City Nine Ball Classic in ‘The Color of Money’

- Location: Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave.

Martin Scorsese’s star-studded film “The Color of Money” is a pool-based sports film following Paul Newman and Tom Cruise as they journey from Chicago to Atlantic City for a tournament. Many locations seen on screen were filmed in Illinois despite the narrative leaving Chicago fairly early on—the climax of the film being no exception.

While the protagonists’ pool competition takes place in the Resorts International Hotel in Atlantic City, the building where said competition was filmed is actually at Navy Pier. Navy Pier is a major cultural center of Chicago, featuring a beer garden, children’s museum, Shakespeare theater, and more.

“The Color of Money” used the Pier’s Aon Grand Ballroom, which has existed since the Pier’s inception in 1916, and features an 80-foot-tall arched ceiling and extensive view of Lake Michigan. The ballroom looks rather different in the film with its windows blocked off and around 30 pool tables covering the floor.

United Artists

Andy’s apartment in the original ‘Child’s Play’

- Location: Brewster Apartments, 2800 N. Pine Grove Ave.

One of the scariest elements of Tom Holland’s “Child’s Play” is the invasion of the domestic space, emphasized by how almost every scene with the haunted Chucky doll takes place in the protagonists’ apartment.

With this in mind, there’s no more iconic “Child’s Play” location than the Brewster Apartments in the Lake View neighborhood of Chicago’s North Side.

Chucky is not the only celebrity to reside here, as “Running Scared” with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal also filmed at the Brewster.

The building has its own haunting history outside of the film: WBEZ Chicago reports that in 1895 a publisher fell off the building’s roof and now haunts the apartments. That gets a little more relevant as a scene in “Child’s Play” has the family’s babysitter fall off the building.

Image Press // Getty Images

Union Station in ‘The Untouchables’

- Location: 225 S. Canal St.

The use of Union Station in Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables” has become so iconic that the stairs used in the scene are referred to as the Untouchables’ Stairs. These stairs are the location in which Kevin Costner, playing special agent Eliot Ness, comes face-to-face with the henchmen of Al Capone for an epic shootout.

Union Station is a historical transportation hub built in 1925 in the Beaux-Arts architecture style. The station has since 2012 been undergoing a series of renovations meant to benefit its function and aesthetic.

Out of all its beautiful locations, De Palma chose to film on the grand staircase that connects visitors from the Canal Street entrance to the Great Hall of the Station, made out of marble and travertine that combine for an ornate background for blood to spill.

“The Untouchables” is not the only movie to feature this location: “Public Enemies,” “Road to Perdition,” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” have all featured the Chicago landmark.

Touchstone Pictures

The movie theater from ‘High Fidelity’

- Location: Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.

Stephen Frear’s “High Fidelity” is an overt homage to music, breakups, and how music gets people through breakups. However, the film also feels like a tribute to its setting, Chicago’s Wicker Park.

Based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby in 1995, it might surprise some fans to discover that the original narrative takes place in Hornby’s home of London and not Chicago. Still, the film transitions seamlessly into the trendy neighborhood of Wicker Park and features many of its well-known locations.

Among those is the Music Box Theatre, where our protagonist Rob Gordon (John Cusack) revisits his second ex, a film critic named Penny Hardwick (Joelle Carter), to discover what makes women always break up with him.

The theater has existed since August 1929, two months before the Great Depression began, and as such maintains the grandiose style of movie theaters that is more akin to today’s opera houses and Broadway venues.

Fitted with a massive neon sign and marquee, the Music Box describes itself as “a symbol of Chicago’s go-to venue for independent, foreign, cult, and classic films,” simultaneously showing high-quality reissues of films (including “High Fidelity,” naturally) and new releases.