10 Times Different Movies Used the Same Locations

Filming locations can sometimes be in as many movies as the actors bringing scenes to life inside them. Many of these locations can be found in and around Hollywood (especially within the “thirty-mile zone” around the area that determines whether pay rates will be for “local” work, and which gives the celebrity news outlet TMZ its name). However, prominent filming locations can be found all over the world.

The following 10 filming locations are particularly intriguing because they were used in scenes from multiple prominent projects, often playing entirely different places in the process.

1. American Pie and American Beauty Filmed at the Same High School

‘American Pie’ (1999)Credit: Universal Pictures

Long Beach Polytechnic High School is often blended with other high schools to create fictional institutions, including an iconic pair of American movies from 1999. Although the sex comedy American Pie shot exteriors at Millikan High School in Long Beach, interior scenes were shot at Poly. Meanwhile, Best Picture winner American Beauty shot its high school scenes at both Poly and South High School in nearby Torrance.

Select Titles That Also Shot at Long Beach Poly: The Craft (1996), The Insider (1999), Nancy Drew (2007)

2. A Nightmare on Elm Street and Can’t Hardly Wait Also Shared a High School

‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)Credit: New Line Cinema

Another campus commonly seen on the silver screen is John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. The lovely brick building can be seen throughout the 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which dream murderer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) targets several of the teens that roam its halls. A series of much less ill-fated teens took over the joint 14 years later in 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, which portrayed the fictional Huntington Hillside High.

Select Titles That Also Shot at John Marshall: Grease (1978), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Space Jam (1996), School of Rock (2003)

3. Scream VI and Happy Birthday to Me Shot Scenes at the Same University

‘Scream VI’ (2023)Credit: Paramount Pictures

Higher education can also get in on the fun when it comes to filming locations. McGill University in Montréal, for instance, was home to slasher movie scenes that were shot more than 40 years apart. In addition to providing the location for the opening scene of the 1981 classic Happy Birthday to Me, it played the fictional Blackmore University in 2023’s Scream VI (which was set in New York City, but shot in and around Montréal).

Select Titles That Also Shot at McGill: Get Smart (2008), Warm Bodies (2013), Brooklyn (2015), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

4. Scream 3 and Halloween H20 Used the Same Manor in Very Different Ways

‘Scream 3’ (2000)Credit: Dimension Films

The Canfield-Moreno Residence and Complex in Los Angeles played the Scooby-Doo-esque mansion in which the finale of the 2000 slasher sequel Scream 3 takes place. However, just two years earlier, it played the fictional Hillcrest Academy in the 1998 slasher sequel Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, proving the building to be as versatile an actor as star Jamie Lee Curtis.

Select Titles That Also Shot at Canfield-Moreno: The Neon Demon (2016), Gangster Squad (2013), Under the Silver Lake (2018)

5. That Thing You Do! and The Benchwarmers Used the Same Neighborhood to Represent Different Eras

‘That Thing You Do!’ (1996)Credit: 20th Century Fox

The Orange Circle, which is at the center of Old Towne in Orange, California, has a throwback town square vibe that made it a perfect location for 1996’s That Thing You Do!, a rock and roll comedy written and directed by Tom Hanks that was set in 1964. In addition to exteriors, scenes were shot inside multiple businesses along the circle, including Watson’s Soda Fountain (which has since closed) and Mr. C’s Rare Records (which is still operating). Just 10 years later, the 2006 sports comedy The Benchwarmers shot in the same area, filming scenes in Watson’s and the nearby Army Navy Store. However, because that movie had a contemporary setting, the location was time-warped ahead 40 years from the period in which the Hanks movie was set.

Select Titles That Also Shot at the Orange Circle: Clockstoppers (2002), Surviving Christmas (2003), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

6. Downton Abbey and Eyes Wide Shut Used the Same Castle

‘Downton Abbey’ (2019)Credit: Focus Features

Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, is the edifice made famous by the hit historical drama series Downton Abbey and reprised its title role in the trilogy of films that followed the end of the show. However, it made an impression on-screen long before either the series or the films. In 1999, it was the location where they shot the initial interiors of the mansion where the memorable masked orgy sequence takes place in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (though that sequence specifically was shot at Elveden Hall in Suffolk).

Select Titles That Also Shot at Highclere Castle: The Secret Garden (1987), King Ralph (1991), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

7. Eyes Wide Shut Also Shares a Location with Batman Begins

‘Batman Begins’ (2005)Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

While Highclere Castle and Elveden Hall played the interiors of Eyes Wide Shut’s orgy mansion, a third British manor home played the exterior of the building. That would be Mentmore Towers, which later went on to play the iconic Wayne Manor in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.

Select Titles That Also Shot at Mentmore Towers: Brazil (1985), The Mummy Returns (2001), Pressure (2026)

8. Conclave and The Phantom Menace Shot Scenes at the Same Palace

‘Conclave’ (2024)Credit: Focus Features

The Royal Palace of Caserta in Southern Italy has been featured in numerous projects, and its elegant staircase is heavily featured in major set pieces in two wildly different movies. First, it portrayed the interior of the Theed City Naboo Palace in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. A quarter century later, it subbed in for a real location - The Vatican - in the 2024 papal selection drama Conclave.

Select Titles That Also Shot in the Royal Palace of Caserta: Mission: Impossible III (2006), The Two Popes (2019), Angels & Demons (2009)

9. Harry Potter Brought Magic to the Same Locale as The Princess Bride

‘The Princess Bride’ (1987)Credit: 20th Century Fox

The Cliffs of Insanity, which play host to the duel between The Man in Black and Inigo Montoya in 1987’s The Princess Bride, were portrayed by the real-life Cliffs of Moher, which run along the southwestern edge of Ireland. The cliffs were later used to bring another desolate stretch of landscape to life in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where they were used as the location where Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) visit to retrieve the Horcrux locket.

Select Titles That Also Shot at the Cliffs of Moher: Leap Year (2010), Irish Wish (2024)

10. Friday the 13th and Shiloh Used the Same Log Cabin

‘Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter’ (1984)Credit: Paramount Pictures

The Log Cabin at Kelly Gulch in Topanga, California was first discovered by the location scout for the slasher sequel Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. In addition to being the home of Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), who would go on to become a major recurring character in the franchise, the cabin was the site of the final showdown with notorious masked murderer Jason Voorhees (Ted White), during which he was killed before being resurrected by lightning in 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. While the cabin’s screen debut was a violent one, the back porch was later transformed into a place of healing when it played the animal clinic in 1996’s Shiloh.

Select Titles That Also Shot at the Log Cabin at Kelly Gulch: Eraser (1996), Pumpkinhead (1989), Murphy's Law (1986)

So, have you ever been watching a movie and noticed that it’s using a location from an entirely different project? And did any of the reused locations on this list blow your mind? Sound off in the comments below!