Travis Petersen | January 31, 2022

The Highest-Grossing Movies Filmed in Each State

After publishing this in late 2021, we noted some inconsistencies in our data. Below, find the most up-to-date facts and figures.

The United States spans 3.8 million square miles, 26 climate types, and countless picturesque landforms—making it a perfect background for all kinds of movies. Everything from historical fantasies to urban disaster epics make their home on American soil (or water).

Although the film industry frequents some states more than others, every state has its claim to Hollywood fame—and when you recognize a cherished landmark from your own home state, it can inspire an excitement that’s hard for other blockbusters to match.

The team at USDISH gathered a list of the highest-grossing movies ever filmed in each state. Find the one that took the most box office earnings in your state—and then stream it On Demand to see if you can spot the scenes filmed on your home turf.

Genres of the Highest-Grossing Movies by State

When it comes to box office hits, Americans definitely have a type: action flicks. Of our list of 51 top-grossing films filmed in the States, 30 were action movies.

Action	30
Drama	10
Comedy	5
Adventure	4
Horror	2
Romance	0

Interesting Findings

• The 5 highest-grossing movies by state included not one, but two titles from the Marvel Avengers franchise—Endgame ($858.4M) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($750.4M).
• In fact, franchises frequently appear among the top earners in box-office revenue: 
  • Marvel movies made it onto our list a total of 7 times.  
  • Transformers movies made it onto our list 4 times.
  • The Twilight, Dark Knight, Hunger Games, and Indiana Jones franchises had two films each on our list. 
    
    
• Also among the top 5 highest-grossing movies were Avatar ($760.5M) and Titanic ($659.3M), both directed by James Cameron and released 13 and 25 years ago, respectively.
  • Avatar is also the highest-grossing movie of all time internationally, according to Box Office Mojo by IMDb Pro.
    
    
• The film with median box office earnings was Star Trek ($257.7M), which was filmed in Vermont.
• Just one of the highest-grossing movies by state earned less than $100M at the box office: The Bridges of Madison County ($71.5M), made in Iowa.
• The average box office earnings for America’s highest-grossing movies is $305.3M.
• The average “age” of the highest-grossing movies by state is 18 years, with a hypothetical release year of 2005.
• As noted in our genre table, Americans seem most willing to flock to theaters for action films.
  • The remaining categories: drama with 10, comedy with 5, adventure with 4, and horror with 2.
  • No romances made our list of top-grossing films by state.

Methodology

First, we used Box Office Mojo by IMDb Pro to compile a list of movies with the highest box office earnings in the US. The figures were not adjusted for inflation. We then used IMDb to compile the filming locations of these movies. 

Each film had to have at least one scene filmed in the reported state. We weighed states more heavily that hosted multiple scenes from each movie, with two exceptions: Georgia and California, which so thoroughly dominate the list of filming locations that in most cases, we featured the lesser-filmed state instead.

Please note: At the time of this report, Spider-Man: No Way Home was still in theatres, which makes the box office earnings subject to change.

About

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