By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — From speedy car chases in Chelsea to high drama in Washington Heights, shooting films in Manhattan remained popular in 2009 despite hard times.
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg had helicopters flying low again over the Hudson for “The Other Guys”, while Angelina Jolie took a trip uptown to Washington Heights for her new film “Salt.”
The movie, about CIA agent Evelyn Salt who was accused of being a Russian spy, saw Jolie filming a scene in which she scaled a Washington Heights wall.
Shots of the Financial District filled the “The Adjustment Bureau” and “Wall Street 2,” while "Sex and the City 2” featured Manhattan as large as any character. Fans were shocked to see Kim Cattrall emerge from her trailer in Midtown in a wedding dress in September.
“We’re still a very popular location,” said Marybeth Ihle, a spokesperson for the Mayors Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.
The precise number of films shot in New York has yet to be totaled, but early estimates suggest that figures will come close to last year’s numbers when 208 films were shot in Manhattan.
According to Ihle, the only location with more camera time on the big screen in the U.S. is California.
“California is an industry town, but New York follows second,” she said. “You can’t recreate the New York skyline in a studio.”
Central Park and the Upper West Side remain the most popular spots to film.
John Johnston, executive director of the New York Production Alliance, said film execs have had to look for ways to cut costs in the past year and accommodate new Netflix and movies on-demand viewers at home.
But he said a continuous consumer demand for flicks has meant that films in Manhattan and beyond are still produced constantly, coming into theaters and making big bucks — as they did during the Great Depression.
“Entertainment is pretty recession proof,” Johnston said. “There’s always an appetite for reprieve and these diversions.”
“You look at the box office and it’s healthy.”
The most expensive movie of all time, “Avatar”, which cost more than $250 million plus millions more in marketing, debuted on Dec. 18 to the tune of $77 million in weekend profits — a top turnout for a movie that isn’t a sequel, remake or adaptation.
“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” recorded the largest one-day profit in box office history, hauling in $72.7 million with the film showing at an estimated 8,500 screens at more than 4,000 sites.
Several films shot in Manhattan in the past year also made it to the top of box office lists, including “Bride Wars” and “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.”
