Why Vancouver Is Often Used as a Substitute Filming Location for Cities in the United States

Vox producer Edward Vega visited Vancouver, British Columbia to find out why the Canadian city and its surrounding area are used as a substitute for filming locations in the United States.

This includes New York City, the Pacific Northwest, New England, and even Clark Kent‘s remote Midwest hometown of Smallville, Kansas. As it turns out, the tax breaks are better, it costs less, and frankly, a lot of Canada looks just like the United States, particularly for snowy Christmas movies.

American audiences are seeking content that’s set in America. So one of the reasons why so many Christmas movies shoot in Canada is because there’s lots of parts of Canada that look like New England or northern United States, Midwest, even parts of, the Northern Pacific area, there’s parts of Canada that really resemble that as well.

Vega also explains why other similarly sized cities such as Atlanta are also big filmmaking spots.

It’s all about finding the sweet spot between somewhere that’s not so crowded that it’s really difficult and expensive to film, but also not so empty that there’s no one around to work. …Tax credits are also a factor for any major movie production. And they’re offered, frankly, around the world. …Basically, the government reimburses you for some portion of the cost of your production, as long as you meet their criteria.