Based on film permits acquired via a Freedom of Information Request from the San Francisco Film Office, this map displays all San Francisco filming locations since the start of 2013 (excluding those that were filmed on private property).

The filming dates range from early 2013 to just a few weeks ago. So in addition to some well-known recent movies, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Godzilla, the list also includes several films that have yet to be released, such as Sean Astin’s upcoming romcom Unleashed.

Breaking it down by neighborhood, these were San Francisco’s most filmed locations:

Financial District – 78 permits Inner Mission – 34 permits Nob Hill – 28 permits Eureka Valley – 27 permits South Beach – 21 permits

Hover over the map below to see the number of scenes filmed in each neighborhood

Map of San Francisco Filming Locations by Neighborhood





The permit documents themselves also give a pretty interesting look behind-the-scenes at what’s actually involved in the filming.

Documents from Terminator-Genisys show the production company faced some challenges getting local residents to sign off on its helicopter flyovers.

Film shoots appear to generate a substantial amount of income for the San Francisco Police Department. Over the course of 10 days filming Ant-Man, the production company paid an estimated $73k for police officer services.

It’s also pretty entertaining to read some of the scene descriptions, such as this one from the upcoming film Entropy:

“Exterior Lead character exits the building, walks east on sidewalk, vomits on fence around abandoned area station. Camera handheld on sidewalk. Note: we do not want a close-up of vomit so we can have the actress spit up water, ginger ale or something else that is reasonably sanitary”

To see more information about these filming locations as well as the permits themselves, have a look at the interactive film location map.

Curious about how these numbers compare to New York? New York City filming locations map

My latest project, Elementus, aims to bring transparency to the cryptocurrency market. Check out our blog for some crypto-related data visualizations.

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