Stark Industries has as much importance to the films as any character. Without it, Tony Stark would not have his Iron Man suit.
LOCATION: Stark Industries (52 Discovery Drive, Irvine, CA 92618)
SHOW: Iron Man
In the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man (2008) the choice was made to relocate the character of Tony Stark, normally associated with New York (and Avengers mansion), to Southern California. Based on the address on crates and letterheads in the film, the industrialists headquarters are located at 1200 Industrial Ave, Long Beach, CA 90803, which is unfortunately not a real address.
Aerial shots of Stark Industries puts it near the port of Long Beach and Shoreline Drive, by the Aquarium of the Pacific. This jibes with part of the final fight with Iron Monger, when the battle spills out onto the road, which was actually filmed on Shoreline Drive. But the building that stands in for Stark Industries is nowhere near this space. It’s actually about 30 minutes away in Irvine, CA.
The Long Beach skyline where Stark Industries should be (approximately).
The building used for the aerial shots and then again for Tony’s arrival back at the office from his time in Afghanistan, are all shot using the Masimo building on Discovery Drive. Scenes for the Tony’s arrival by limo, and the press conference are shot in the back of the building looking out into the area with the roundabout. Scenes inside the office are most likely shot on a soundstage, but with the digital or photo backdrop outside the window showing the surrounding buildings.
The scenes with the ARC reactor are not located in Irvine (or Long Beach) and is still a mystery as to the filming location. I have speculated that it may have taken place at a location that no longer exists.
Iron Man 2 (2010) trades in many scenes at Stark International for the Stark Expo in Flushing, New York, while Iron Man 3 (2013) used locations in North Carolina (where the production had their home base) to replicate Stark Industries. Stay tuned for MCU: Location Scout next week when the Iron Man 3 locations are revealed!
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Behind every scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a location. Some are iconic. Some are functional. Some are completely fantastic. But all of them are there to support the story.
Here at the MCU: Location Scout, Jovial Jay digs deep to uncover the real-world filming locations behind your favorite super hero films. From Iron Man to Avengers:Endgame and everything in between!
Having grown up on comics, television and film, “Jovial” Jay feels destined to host podcasts and write blogs related to the union of these nerdy pursuits. Among his other pursuits he administrates and edits stories at the two largest Star Wars fan sites on the ‘net (Rebelscum.com, TheForce.net), and co-hosts the Jedi Journals podcast over at the ForceCast network.