From Hayvenhurst to Boyle Heights: The Los Angeles filming locations of Michael

EastWest Studios, 6000 West Sunset Boulevard, East Hollywood
The sessions for Off the Wall — Michael's first genuine solo masterpiece, recorded with Quincy Jones in 1979 — were filmed at EastWest Studios on Sunset Boulevard in East Hollywood. This is not a set dressed to look like a historic studio. It is a historic studio. Frank Sinatra recorded My Way here. The Beach Boys made Pet Sounds here. And some of Thriller was recorded in these same rooms. 

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 506 South Grand Avenue, Downtown Los Angeles
The chaotic press conference scene was filmed in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel on South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The Biltmore has been a Hollywood favourite for decades. It was the Sedgewick Hotel in Ghostbusters. It was the Beverly Palms Hotel in Beverly Hills Cop. 

Mulholland Drive and Griffith Observatory
Feeling the need to escape his father's control, Michael confides in his security guard Bill. Bill drives him up to Mulholland Drive — the road winding along the crest of the Hollywood Hills, with the lights of Los Angeles spread below. The Griffith Observatory is visible in the background. 

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Crypto.com Arena, South Figueroa Street, Downtown Los Angeles
The Triumph tour concert — where Michael performs Ben to a vast arena crowd — was filmed at Crypto.com Arena, known until 2021 as the Staples Center. It holds 20,000 people. Fuqua filled it. He brought in as many real extras as the budget allowed, added more cameras when he saw audience members actually crying and dancing in response to Jaafar's performance, and captured something that felt, apparently, like an actual concert. 

Union Pacific Avenue, Boyle Heights
The most famous three minutes in pop video history. The zombie dance from the Thriller video — filmed originally in 1983 on Union Pacific Avenue, just west of the junction with South Calzona Street in the Boyle Heights district, east of the LA River — was recreated in the film on the exact same street. Fuqua said the location "looks the same." Boyle Heights is a dense, working-class neighbourhood that has changed considerably since 1983, and yet this particular stretch of Union Pacific Avenue retained enough of its original character to make the recreation possible. They had a full moon every night of the shoot. "That was eerie," Fuqua said. It was perfect.

Tom's Toys, 2281 Honolulu Avenue, Montrose
One of the film's more charming location stories involves a toy store. A full period recreation of a Toys R Us was built inside a former K-Mart at 1000 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank — complete with authentic 1980s toys and signage — but legal problems meant the scene was cut entirely. The replacement is more interesting anyway. Tom's Toys, a real independent toy store at 2281 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, north of Glendale, is where Michael now signs autographs for children in the finished film. 

The Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena
The Motown 25 anniversary concert — the television special at which Michael first performed the Moonwalk on national television, on March 25, 1983 — was filmed at the Pasadena Playhouse, at 39 South El Molino Avenue. The Pasadena Playhouse is California's official State Theatre, a 1925 Mediterranean Revival building that has been one of Los Angeles's most important performance venues for a century.