They’re not! While there are a handful that are filmed in NYC, most movies and shows that are set in New York are filmed in Vancouver, Toronto, or Atlanta, where they can get a similar feel but save a lot of money from tax breaks designed to bring production and filming to those cities. Some more artful productions like Mr. Robot are filmed on location as a matter of principle.
If your question is why so many movies are *set* in New York, it’s because it’s such a recognizable setting (self fulfilling prophecy, I know), with a wide diversity of different options for a wide diversity of different lifestyles.
It’s an easily-recognized setting and the sheer size of it allows for a lot of different “feels” of neighborhood to be had without having to spend money taking crews and actors all over the place. Need skyscrapers? Go to Manhattan. Don’t need them? Go to maybe Queens. Suburban? Go more toward the outskirts. Need a park? Lots of parks.
It provides a lot of city in one place and once you get out of downtown Manhattan and the super-easily-recognized places like the Empire State Building and Times Square and the Flatiron, it’s not terribly difficult to find a location that hasn’t already been seen a million times.
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