These 10 Movies Are The Best Ones Filmed In Massachusetts
Here's a question, Berkshire County residents: Were any of your favorite movies filmed(either whole or in part) in Massachusetts? A lot of people think "The Boondock Saints" is a quintessential Boston movie, but here's something you may not know. Although the movie is set in Boston, with the exception of a few scenes, most of it was filmed in Toronto.
Recently, the sports betting website BetMassachusetts.com put together a nice little ranking of the best movies that were shot(again, whole or in part) in the Commonwealth.
To come up with their findings, they analyzed everything from Rotten Tomatoes scores, IMDB ratings, Oscars recognition, and more to calculate the movies filmed in the Bay State that received the highest praise.
According to BetMassachusetts.com, here are the Top 10 Best Movies Shot In Massachusetts starting with #10. Also, in case you've never seen some of the following movies, I've included trailers for all of them to whet your appetite!
(And on a side note, one of my favorite movies that were shot in Boston did not make the top 10, 2010's "The Town" directed by Ben Affleck.) Alright, let's begin the rankings. And what a great film to start us off:
#10. The Firm(1993). Based on the John Grisham bestseller. Starring Tom Cruise and a once-in-a-lifetime cast(Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, David Straithairn, Gary Busy, Wilford Brimley, the always amazing late Hal Holbrook, and on and on...). Cambridge was the primary shooting location.
#9. The Equalizer(2014), starring Denzel Washington and loosely based on the 1980s TV series with Edward Woodward. Salisbury served as the primary shooting location.
#8. Don't Look Up(2021). This one's a black comedy satire about the possible end of the world starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. I haven't seen this one. Yet. Much of it was filmed in Brockton.
#7. Borat(2006). I'm sure many of you reading this are familiar with this controversial comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen.
#6. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever(2022) is the most recent movie on this top 10 list and the only movie in the top 10 that is part of the MCU. Portions were filmed in Boston.
#5. Little Women(2019). This is the umpteenth retelling of Louisa May Alcott's classic coming-of-age story. It was filmed primarily in Boston.
#4. The Social Network(2010). This highly acclaimed film concerning the founding of Facebook was primarily shot in Cambridge although some scenes were shot in California.
#3. Sounds Of Metal(2019) is a film concerning a heavy metal drummer who begins to lose his hearing. It received mostly excellent reviews. Ipswich was the primary shooting location.
#2. Good Will Hunting(1997). You just knew this flick filmed in Boston had to be on this list. And pretty high up, too! But there's one movie that's even higher...
#1. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (the original from 1966). This barnburner of a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, based on Edward Albee's play, was quite controversial back in the day. It was shot primarily in Northampton.
Cool list, huh? Did any of your favorite movies shot in Massachusetts not make the cut? What about 2016's "Manchester By The Sea"? Or Mark Wahlberg's "Patriots Day"? Another one of my favorites didn't make it in. 1982's "The Verdict" with Paul Newman in an Oscar-nominated performance.
Check out the list for yourself at BetMassachusetts.com's website here. It makes for very interesting reading.
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