NYC on Screen
Where the movies left their mark on the city that never sleeps — four iconic productions, the real streets behind them, and how those streets look today.
New York has always been more than a backdrop. It is a character — restless, contradictory, impossible to fake. Directors have known this for over a century, and the city has repaid their attention with some of the most indelible images in cinema history.
This site traces four productions back to their real locations. Each page pairs production history with an embedded trailer, a live Google Map, and a then-and-now photo comparison.
| Productions featured | 4 |
| Years spanned | 1961–1998 |
| Borough | Manhattan |
| Oldest location | Hook & Ladder 8 (1903) |
| Still open today | All four |
— Browse the productions —
Film No. 1 · 1961
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Dir. Blake Edwards · 727 Fifth Ave, Midtown
Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly stands before the Tiffany & Co. flagship at dawn — one of cinema’s most iconic opening shots, filmed on location on Fifth Avenue.
Film No. 2 · 1984
Ghostbusters
Dir. Ivan Reitman · 14 N. Moore St, Tribeca
Three parapsychologists set up shop in a Tribeca firehouse — the real Hook & Ladder Company 8, built in 1903 and still an active FDNY station today.
Film No. 3 · 1976
Taxi Driver
Dir. Martin Scorsese · Times Square / Hell’s Kitchen
Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle navigates a city in crisis. Scorsese turned 1970s Times Square — then at its most dangerous — into an unforgettable portrait of urban alienation.
TV Series No. 4 · 1989–1998
Seinfeld
Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld · 2880 Broadway
The show about nothing found its diner at Tom’s Restaurant on Broadway — real exterior, Hollywood interior, immortalised by Suzanne Vega and four friends with nowhere better to be.
WEATHER IN NYC