UBC is the 9th most popular filming location in the world

An aerial view of UBC campus in Vancouver (UBC Public Affairs/Flickr)

As the setting for scenes in numerous major film titles such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tomorrowland, and Fifty Shades of Grey, the University of British Columbia’s campus in Vancouver is the ninth most popular filming location in the world.

According to a compilation by Go Compare, UBC has been used as a filming location 91 times over the past two decades. Some of the most popular locations used by film productions on campus include the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Rose Garden, Main Mall, Buchanan Tower, Museum of Anthropology, Cecil Green Park House, and the old Chemistry building.

UBC’s ranking is based on the company’s analysis of IMDb’s data of more than 340,000 films that were shot on location around the world.

The most filmed location was Central Park, with 231 films shot in the famous New York City park such as The Devil’s Advocate, Men In Black II, Spider-Man 3, and Enchanted. Locations in NYC dominated the list.

As well, locations in the United Kingdom, specifically Canary Wharf, Piccadilly Circus, and Trafalgar Square, and South Bank, were also amongst the locations in the top 20 ranking.

The only other university campus listed the top 20 was the University of California, Los Angeles. No other Canadian location made the ranking.

Here is the top 20 list of the world’s most filmed locations, with the number of times they have been used as a movie filming location over the past 20 years:

Central Park – New York City (231)
Venice Beach – Los Angeles (161)
Greenwich Village – New York City (161
Astoria – New York City (132)
Williamsburg – New York City (121)
University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles (106)
Coney Island – New York City (102)
Times Square – New York City (99)
University of British Columbia – Vancouver (91)
Harlem – New York City (80)
South Bank – London (72)
Greenpoint – New York City (60)
Hollywood Boulevard – Los Angeles (52)
Canary Wharf – London (50)
Piccadilly Circus – London (49)
Trafalgar Square – London (48)
Griffith Observatory – Los Angeles (44)
Old Royal Navy College – London (43)
East Village – New York City (39)
Big Bear Lake – Bear Mountain Ski Resort, California (32)

However, the main difference between UBC and the other locations in the top 20 is that the campus almost never plays itself in film and television shows. Like other popular filming sites in Vancouver, UBC stands in for other places – particularly American cities or a futuristic setting imagined by filmmakers.

Go Compare also ranked countries by the number of times they have been featured in movies.

The United States is ranked first with 139,506 films, followed by the United Kingdom (25,768), Canada (21,088), Germany (12,567), France (10,338), Spain (10,333), Mexico (9,053), Australia (8,860) Italy (8,004) and India (5,994).

UBC is the 9th most popular filming location in the world

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