The first movie studio was a tar paper shack in Jersey.
Thomas Edison’s team built the Black Maria at his West Orange lab. It spun on a turntable to chase the sun through a roof that opened to the sky. The movie business starts here.
The first movie stars flexed for a Jersey camera.
Strongman Eugen Sandow posed for Edison’s Kinetoscope in the Black Maria. Strips like this one, now at the Library of Congress, played in parlors across the country.
The first blockbuster ran on Jersey rails.
The Great Train Robbery used New Jersey for its outlaws and its train, including Essex County Park and the Lackawanna line. Nobody had seen a story move like this.
Fort Lee was the first movie capital.
Before anyone said Hollywood, studios packed the Palisades. Pearl White’s stunts in The Perils of Pauline were shot around Fort Lee, and the cliffs are part of the legend behind the word cliffhanger.
Then the business went west.
Better weather, cheaper land and distance from Edison’s patent lawyers pulled producers to California through the 1910s and 1920s. Hollywood got the sequel. New Jersey kept the original.
The last big lots left their mark.
Operations like Selznick’s kept shooting in Fort Lee into the 1920s. Then the lights went off, one stage at a time.
Brando could have been a contender. In Hoboken.
On the Waterfront filmed on the Hoboken docks and won Best Picture. Jersey became the location Hollywood flew in for.
1893
Scroll to roll
Same river. New century.
Drag the frame. The Hudson waterfront that shipped the world now lights up every night as a backdrop the studios keep coming back to.
Then: Holland America docks, Hoboken, Library of Congress. Now: Jersey City skyline at night, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
2026Scene 7. The comeback
Jersey is back in the director’s chair.
The state that started it all is starting again. Filming here grew while the rest of the country slowed down.
$1BNetflix Studios Fort Monmouth
12New soundstages planned
+45%NJ filming, year over year
Real photos. Fort Monmouth, 2025: Szeremeta, CC BY 4.0. The Plot Against America set, Jersey City, 2019: Djflem, CC BY-SA 4.0. Black Maria: National Park Service.
“New Jersey is open for film business.”Governor Mikie Sherrill, NJ Film Expo, Meadowlands Arena, 2026
Source: InsiderNJ
2026349 films
Every frame has a home.
Busiest film towns
Pick a light
Every light is a town where films were shot. Bigger lights mean more films. Tap one, search above, or watch the narrated tour.
Shot in Jersey.
Films and series that rolled camera in New Jersey, from the Black Maria to this week’s call sheets.
| Year | Title | Where in NJ | Era |
|---|
Real set: The Plot Against America (HBO) on MLK Drive, Jersey City, 2019. Photo: Djflem, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Rolling in New Jersey, fall 2026
Now filming.
5,000+Film and TV productions made in New Jersey since 2017, per Gov. Sherrill.
45%Year over year jump in New Jersey filming while U.S. filming fell.
$152MSpent with state businesses by Happy Gilmore 2.
12Soundstages planned at Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth.
On the call sheet.
The new back lots.
Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth
Oceanport and Eatontown. A $1 billion plan for 292 acres, 12 soundstages and nearly 500,000 square feet of stage space.
Cinelease Studios
Jersey City. Opened in 2021 as the largest film studio in the state at the time.
Film Ready Communities
Towns certified to welcome crews. Fifteen more were added in March 2026.
“What can happen when industry, labor, state, and local government work together.”Mikie Sherrill, on Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, January 2026
Source: Netflix newsroom
The archive.
Posters for every era, plus photographs from the Library of Congress, the National Park Service and other public collections.
Now showing 1893
The Black Maria
West OrangeEdison
Weekly serial 1914
Perils on the Palisades
Fort LeePathé
Best Picture 1954
On the Waterfront
HobokenColumbia
Coming soon
Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth
Oceanport12 stages
About First Film State.
Drag to turn the camera
First Film State tells the story most people never learned: the movie business started in New Jersey. Edison’s Black Maria in West Orange was the first film studio. Fort Lee was the first movie town. The first blockbuster ran on Jersey tracks.
We track it all, from the silent era to the crews working this week, so New Jersey gets credit for the original and a seat at the table for what comes next.
- Historical photos: Library of Congress, National Park Service, UCLA Library and public domain trade press, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Jersey City skyline: Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
- Real set and location photos via Wikimedia Commons: Djflem (The Plot Against America set, CC BY-SA 4.0), Szeremeta (Fort Monmouth, CC BY 4.0), Acroterion (Fort Monmouth gate, CC BY-SA 4.0), Stephen Hanafin (Satriale’s, CC BY-SA 2.0), Tzim78 (NJ Film Expo trailers, CC BY 4.0), Washington Street Hoboken (CC0).
- Cinematic illustrations: generated for First Film State with Higgsfield.
- Quotes: InsiderNJ (NJ Film Expo, 2026) and the Netflix newsroom (January 12, 2026).
- Production data: NJ Motion Picture and TV Commission, Netflix, News 12, Production List and The Local Girl, as of October 2026.