Grab your popcorn, Louisville, because this Monday is for the movies. According to IMDB, there are 610 films that list Louisville as their filming location.
That number can’t be completely accurate though, as “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985) is listed, and despite the story taking place in Louisville, the film was actually shot in California.
While you may not think of Louisville as a bastion of cinema, Kentucky offers some aggressive tax incentives for filmmakers who shoot their productions in the Bluegrass State.
The Kentucky Film Office, which is tasked with administering the Kentucky Film and Entertainment Industry Incentive Program, offers incentives to companies that spend at least $250,000 to produce feature films or television shows in Kentucky.
Between July 2015 + June 2018, the Kentucky Film Office awarded nearly $9 million in average annual tax credits, which generated $2.7 million in average annual tax revenue during that time.
We’re going to keep this feature to a tight 90 minutes, since we know you’ve got a whole day ahead of you. Here are 8 movies that were filmed in Louisville.
Title: Kentucky
Year: 1938
Filming location: Louisville, Lexington, Los Angeles + Inglewood
Synopsis: This Romeo and Juliet story is set amid the horse racing scene in Kentucky. The family feud between lovers Jack + Sally dates back more than 70 years, when Jack’s grandfather killed Sally’s great grandfather over horse theft.
Box office: N/A
Title: Stripes
Year: 1981
Filming location: Fort Knox + Louisville
Synopsis: Bill Murray stars in this comedy as John Winger, who after getting fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, joins the U.S. Army with friend Russell Ziskey, played by Harold Ramis. Bill’s character emerges as the leader of the misfits in the army, but his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal.
Box office: 85.3 million USD
Title: The Insider
Year: 1999
Filming location: Louisville, Mississippi, New York + the Bahamas
Synopsis: Al Pacino and Russell Crowe grace the Ville as Lowell Bergman and Jeffrey Wigland in this fictionalized account of a true story based on a “60 Minutes” segment on big tobacco. Russell’s character is a former tobacco industry executive who blows the whistle on his previous employer and finds himself on the receiving end of death threats. Al’s character, a TV producer, struggles to help Russell defend his testimony.
Box office: 60.3 million USD
Title: Elizabethtown
Year: 2005
Filming location: Louisville, Versailles
Synopsis: Who can forget this moody romance between Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst? Orlando plays Drew Baylor, who travels to Elizabethtown, Kentucky for a memorial service honoring his late father where he meets a stewardess named Claire, played by Kirsten.
Box office: 52 million USD
Title: Secretariat
Year: 2010
Filming location: Louisville, Lexington + Louisiana
Synopsis: This biographical sports drama film revolves around the story of Triple Crown winner Secretariat and the family who raised him.
Box office: 60.3 million USD
Title: Tammy
Year: 2014
Filming location: Louisville, but mostly North Carolina
Synopsis: Tammy, played by Melissa McCarthy, sets out on the road from her home in Louisville with her grandmother Pearl, played by Susan Sarandon, after she wrecks her car, loses her job, and finds her husband entangled with a neighbor.
Box office: 100.3 million USD
Title: The Art of Self Defense
Year: 2019
Filming location: Louisville
Synopsis: Casey Davies, played by Jesse Eisenberg, enrolls in a karate dojo after being attacked by a motorcycle gang. Casey meets a charismatic sensei who teaches him how to defend himself, but he soon uncovers an underground fraternity of violence he must confront.
Box office: 2.4 million USD
Title: Mom and Dad
Year: 2017
Filming location: Louisville
Synopsis: A teenage girl and her younger brother must survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origin causes parents, played by Nicholas Cage and Selma Blair, to turn violently on their own kids.
Box office: $165,932