Tours visiting the Empire State Building
Explore New York City through its famous TV & movie locations!
Tours visiting the Empire State Building
New York TV & Movie Tour
- Details, availability & tickets at
- Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars
All UNEDITED customer reviews
What People are Saying
Customer Reviews“Not your average city tour where you simply see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. ”
- Female, Age 20-29, International
“Climbing the Statue of Liberty or catching the view from the Empire State Building are still top New York attractions but tourists are also scrambling to see where their favorite TV shows are filmed.”
-MSNBC Entertainment, Nov. 2009
On the NY TV & Movie Sites Tour, you’ll spot one of New York's most recognizable landmarks, the famous Empire State Building, a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street, that has been featured in hundreds of movies. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York: “the Empire state.” From its completion in 1931 until the construction of the World Trade Center North Tower topped out on December 23, 1970, it stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years. It is now once again the tallest building in New York, after the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 attack, and you can see it daily our tour.
The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, making it a must see! The building is owned by Harold Helmsley's company and managed by its management/leasing division Helmsley-Spear. It is also known to bring in many celebrities like Queen Elizabeth II, Tom Cruise, Mariah Carey, and more.
The present site of the Empire State Building was first developed as the John Thomson Farm in the late 18th century. The block was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the late 19th century, and was frequented by The Four Hundred, the social elite of New York.
The Empire State Building was designed by Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, possibly using its earlier design for the R.J. Reynolds Tower in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as a basis. The building was actually designed from the top down. The general contractors were Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed by John J. Raskob. The construction company was chaired by Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York.
The Empire State Building is the first building to have more than 100 floors. It also has over 100 bathrooms.
The New York TV & Movie Sites Tour will take you directly past the Empire State Building. Perhaps the most famous popular culture representation of the building is in the 1933 film King Kong, in which the title character—a giant ape—climbs to the top to escape his captors. In 1983, for the 50th anniversary of the film, an inflatable King Kong was placed on top of the real Empire State Building. However, a mouse chewed through it one day, partially deflating the ape. It also needed a constant supply of air, and was never fully inflated. In 2005, a new version of King Kong was released (starring Naomi Watts), set in a re-creation of 1930s New York City, including a final showdown between Kong and the bi-planes atop a greatly detailed Empire State Building.
The iconic building was also featured prominently in the movie Independence Day. The Empire State Building is Ground Zero when an alien spaceship destroys New York City. Andy Warhol's 1964 silent film Empire is one continuous, eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building at night, shot in black-and-white. It was also the location of a phony Martian invasion in an episode of I Love Lucy.
You’ll recognize the observation deck as the designated site for romantic rendezvous in the films Love Affair, An Affair to Remember, and Sleepless In Seattle, with star-crossed lovers planning to finally meet atop the famous building.
The building can be seen in the beginning of the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die as the camera pans into the UN Headquarters, where the MI6 agent and British ambassador Dawes is killed by one of the assassins of Dr. Kananga during an assembly.
The Discovery Channel show Mythbusters tested the urban myth "If you drop a penny off the top of the Empire State Building will it kill someone or put a crater in the sidewalk?" By the time the penny hit the ground it is going roughly 65mph (terminal velocity for an object of its mass and shape), which is NOT fast enough to inflict lethal injury or put a crater into the sidewalk.
In Elf, Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell), leaves the North Pole to find his real father in the Big Apple. His adopted father, Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) hands Buddy a snow globe with a model of the Empire State Building inside showing him where he can find his real father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), who works there as a children’s book publisher. While Buddy’s initial reception at the Empire State Building isn’t the warmest, each year over 3.5 million people are whisked to the 86th floor observation deck. Hop in line for your chance at an amazing view of New York City.
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accomodate your request.
Advance purchase required - tours usually sell out in advance!
Get more information, check availability, and buy tickets online:
On Location TV & Movie Tours
Or to purchase tickets by phone, call Zerve at (212) 209-3370.