Filming Locations: Where was Ghostbusters filmed?

Like the original one, the 2016 Ghostbusters movie was set in New York, so many exteriors were shot in Manhattan.

However, to reduce costs, the movie was primarily filmed in Boston and some other locations in Massachusetts.

The all-female Ghostbusters poker is here to save the world. Film director Paul Feig is also here to save us from the horror of watching a bad remake of the glorious 80's paranormal comedy. It seems that we are in good hands. His last movie Spy was one of the funniest surprises of 2015.

To fight against the terrors of a pointless sequel, the main cast is not alone. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver, among others, answered the call and they do a cameo in different parts of this new installment.

The franchise’s stars are Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. The girls are also attended by a very special receptionist: Thor's Chris Hemsworth.

Here is our spoiler-free guide to the filming locations of Ghostbusters. Following this link, you can also check out the locations where the 2021 movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife was filmed.

The filming location of the new Ghostbusters headquarters station can be found in a corner between Harrison Avenue and Essex street in Boston's Chinatown.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The building is occupied by the Kaze Shabu Shabu Japanese Restaurant, and their owners may have won the lottery (or not, depending how fans behave).

In any case, according to Google Maps it does not look as cool as in the movie.

In this scene of the movie, Ozzy Osbourne is playing the frontman of a satanic band of metal.

The concert venue was filmed at Boston's Wang Theatre, a wonderful historic building built in 1925.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

With Ghostbusters we learned that if you find a phantom, you have more chances of ending up full of slime than an alien egg.

This sequence takes place in the library inside the Ames Mansion in Borderland State Park, North Easton.

This is the same Knives Out house used in the 2019 movie.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

The Castle at Boston University it’s supposed to be a New York City mansion, called Aldridge Mansion Museum.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Dogs and cats living together. The epic ghost invasion of the big Apple.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

To make this possible, the studio built a massive replica of New York City’s Times Square in the old Naval Air Station in South Weymouth.

This is an aerial view, the place can be explored in 3D with Google Maps.

The iconic old headquarters of the first Ghostbusters, the Firehouse in Tribeca neighborhood in New York, also served as a set for exterior scenes.

The new vehicle Ecto-1 was also filmed driving in the streets of the city, or parked in front of buildings like Surrogate's Court. Other sequences like the subway scene were filmed in a studio.

When we watched this little gag with Erin and Jillian, we couldn't resist the temptation to recall 1974's masterpiece Young Frankenstein, containing the inspirational idea of this scene.
Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox

For further information, it doesn't exist (yet) an art book about this new production, but it is highly recommended Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History containing everything and beyond the universe of the first two movies. It includes lots of great set photography, artworks and a detailed writeup into the making of the films.

It is also interesting the Tobin's Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition. This wonderful catalog of ghouls, ghosts, spectres and other creepy crawlers is based on the fictional book mentioned in the 1984 movie.

From the new installment there is available the Ghostbuster's Handbook, that has got good reviews.

Released in 2015, the Lego Firehouse Headquarters Building is a fantastic out-of-this-world (or out-of-reach, because of the price) 4,634 piece present for the fans.

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