Some places are naturally photogenic. Others become movie stars.
From vampire-infested boardwalks and gang hideouts to superhero mansions and one of television’s biggest production secrets, America’s beaches and boardwalks have been setting the stage for unforgettable stories for decades.
While researching my Atlantic City podcast episode, I learned that Boardwalk Empire, a television series built around the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk, wasn’t filmed there at all. Instead, HBO constructed a 300-foot boardwalk set in a Brooklyn parking lot, complete with period storefronts and a digitally created Atlantic Ocean.
That discovery sent me down a rabbit hole.
Just how many famous beaches and boardwalks had become part of Hollywood history?
Here are five of my favorites.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California
By day, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is everything you’d expect from a classic California amusement park. Families ride the historic Giant Dipper roller coaster, children line up for the Looff Carousel, and the smell of popcorn and cotton candy drifts through the air.
Then Hollywood arrives.
Director Joel Schumacher transformed the boardwalk into the home of The Lost Boys, using its nighttime atmosphere to create one of the most memorable vampire films of the 1980s. More recently, Jordan Peele returned to the same location for Us, proving that Santa Cruz can still feel unsettling decades later.
Today, the boardwalk fully embraces its cinematic history by hosting annual beach screenings of The Lost Boys, allowing fans to watch the film just steps from where it was made.
Coney Island Boardwalk, New York
Few places feel more unmistakably New York than Coney Island.
Its famous Cyclone roller coaster, Wonder Wheel, Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, and lively boardwalk have appeared in countless films, but perhaps none capture its personality better than The Warriors and Requiem for a Dream.
For The Warriors, Coney Island became the finish line for one of cinema’s most memorable gang adventures. For Requiem for a Dream, the same boardwalk reflected a much darker story about addiction and loss.
Despite telling completely different stories, both films relied on Coney Island’s unmistakable character.
And yes… if you’re visiting, I still think a stop at Nathan’s Famous is practically mandatory.
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Long before cameras arrived, Asbury Park was already telling stories.
Its historic Convention Hall, boardwalk, and the legendary Stone Pony have made it one of New Jersey’s most recognizable seaside communities.
Filmmakers have used that history to their advantage.
The Sopranos brought Tony Soprano’s dreamlike “Funhouse” sequence here, while The Wrestler used Asbury Park’s off-season atmosphere to mirror its main character’s emotional struggles.
More recently, Bruce Springsteen insisted that the film Deliver Me From Nowhere be filmed in New Jersey, allowing the places that shaped his music to become part of the story once again.
Malibu Coast, California
If one stretch of coastline deserves an award for lifetime achievement in filmmaking, it’s Malibu.
The beaches around Leo Carrillo State Beach, Point Dume, and Westward Beach have doubled for locations around the world.
The opening beach scene in Grease? Malibu pretending to be Australia.
The unforgettable ending of Planet of the Apes? Point Dume.
Tony Stark’s cliffside mansion in the Iron Man films? Point Dume again, although the mansion itself was created with visual effects.
Add in films like Inception, Point Break, The Usual Suspects, and Letters from Iwo Jima, and it quickly becomes clear why Malibu may be the hardest-working stretch of coastline in Hollywood.
The Boardwalk That Never Was
Of all the stories I discovered, this one surprised me the most.
Boardwalk Empire feels inseparable from Atlantic City.
Yet none of its famous boardwalk scenes were filmed there.
Instead, the production recreated a 1920s version of Atlantic City inside a Brooklyn parking lot because the real boardwalk had changed too much over the decades to represent its earlier self.
The storefronts were built from scratch.
The ocean was added digitally.
The result convinced millions of viewers they were looking at Atlantic City.
Sometimes Hollywood finds the perfect location.
Sometimes it transforms a familiar one.
And sometimes it creates an entirely new place that exists only through movie magic.
The Magic Behind the Movies
One of the things I love most about filming locations is discovering the stories behind them.
Sometimes the real place is even more interesting than what appears on screen.
Whether it’s Santa Cruz embracing its vampire legacy, Coney Island playing both hero and villain, Asbury Park inspiring generations of storytellers, Malibu pretending to be almost anywhere, or a Brooklyn parking lot becoming Prohibition-era Atlantic City, these places remind us that movie magic often begins with a remarkable location and occasionally with a remarkable illusion.
