"Godzilla"

Most of Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla" (TriStar Pictures, 1998) is set in New York but a substantial chunk was shot in downtown Los Angeles on Main, Broadway, 6th, 7th and 8th streets. This shot, from about 48 minutes into the film, looks down Broadway toward 7th St. On the right it's the State Theatre. We'll see a lot of it. See the pages about the State Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. 

 

The film features Mathew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, Harry Shearer, Arabella Field, Vicki Lewis and Doug Savant. The cinematography was by Ueli Steiger.  

 

Another look-out-the-back-window shot from early in the film. Thanks to Kevin Binger for noting the L.A. locations in a Facebook post for the group Film Locations - Then and Now. 

 

 

 

Much, much later Matthew, Jean and several others escape from the beast in a taxi and try to get out of town. But we seem to be going around and around the same few blocks. Here we're on 7th looking west with the State on the left. They were running Disney's "Hercules."   

 

 

 The cab that our team is in heads west across Broadway. 

 

 

A view out the windshield. Godzilla approaches on the right from the 600 block. 

 

 

 Big trouble. 

 

 

 Driving over his toes. 

 

At last, on a different block. On the left it's the side of the Tower Theatre as the cab turns off Broadway to go east on 8th St. 

 

 

  

The beast rounds the corner a moment later.  See the pages about the Tower Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1927, a design by S. Charles Lee that's been turned into an Apple store. 

 

 

Guess what? Another look at the State Theatre in this view south.  

 

 

 

A corner view of the State. On the right in this shot we're looking west on 7th.  

 

 

Finally a view farther down Broadway. We're looking north from 8th St. On the right it's the Globe Theatre, in a three-story building at 744 S. Broadway. But the building the Globe is in is actually much taller. For the film they whacked it off at the cornice above the 3rd floor to make room for Godzilla to swing his tail around. 

 

 

A view of the Globe's truncated building a moment later. See the pages about the Globe Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It opened in 1913 as the Morosco, a two-balcony legit house. It's now a nightclub.  

 

 

We move farther north on Broadway for this shot in the 600 block. On the left note the bottom of one of the vertical signs of the Palace Theatre, 630 S. Broadway. For the theatre on the right they've added some signage on top of the readerboard so we don't recognize it as the Los Angeles, an unlikely name for a theatre in New York. See the Los Angeles Theatres site's pages about the Palace Theatre and the Los Angeles. 

 

 

 

Circling back to 8th St. for yet another shot of the Tower Theatre.  Here the cab is coming out of the alley behind the theatre to head west on 8th. 

 

 

A last look at the Tower to end the film's tour of downtown Los Angeles theatres.  

On IMDb: "Godzilla" 

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