The Top Ranked Southern US City Movie And TV Lovers Should Add To Their Bucket List

If you've ever stayed for the post-credits scene in a Marvel movie, you may have noticed the Georgia peach logo at the end. The logo appears in the closing credits of many films across different genres — and there's a practical reason for that. Georgia offers tax incentives that have made it one of the world's most popular filming locations for movie and TV productions. It's even been called the Hollywood of the South. As a result, the state and especially its biggest city, Atlanta, are now full of locations that might be familiar to viewers. However, in the same way that America's most-filmed building frequently masquerades as other places, you may not always know when you're watching Atlanta.

Recognizing on-screen locations in real life is part of the fun of discovering Atlanta. If you need an out-of-this-world place to stay, for instance, one option is the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. The atrium of this hotel is such a grand architectural feat that both "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" and the ongoing Marvel Studios series, "Loki," used it as a sci-fi setting. When you're there, you can pretend you're Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in the Tributes Training Center or Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in the TVA Building, the Time Variance Authority's headquarters.

There's more filmed in Atlanta than just sci-fi, however. Pull up to the Whistle Stop Café, and you can eat fried green tomatoes in the same building where the dramedy of the same name was filmed.

Despite its name and Missouri setting, the Netflix series "Ozark" was shot mostly in Atlanta and other parts of Georgia. Like "Fried Green Tomatoes," some of its filming locations are now restaurants. The set of the Blue Cat Lodge in nearby Canton became the barbeque joint J.D.'s on the Lake. Located on the shore of Lake Allatoona — which doubled for the Lake of the Ozarks — J.D.'s still sports Blue Cat signage inside.

A popular Atlanta fine-dining venue, Bacchanalia, appeared in "Ozark" and the action movie "Baby Driver." If you're a fan of the latter, which is also set in Atlanta, you can find many of its locations around town. Uncle Chucky's Diner, a key setting, has unfortunately closed, but Criminal Records, the store where the music-loving protagonist buys his LPs, is open for business.

Another Atlanta diner that has often shown up on the silver screen is the Silver Skillet, which made USA Today's list of the 10 best breakfasts in town. The diner's period feel made it a natural filming environment for "The Founder," the Micheal Keaton-led biopic about the founding of McDonald's. "Ozark" has featured the diner as well. If you're up for a picnic or some Mexican food, the show also used places like Piedmont Park and the Latin mall Plaza Fiesta to stand in for Chicago and Mexico. Piedmont Park has appeared in numerous films, even posing as Central Park, Manhattan, in the blockbuster "Avengers: Infinity War."

When discussing Atlanta filming locations, we would be remiss not to mention Donald Glover's hit FX show, "Atlanta." It has put local restaurants like Zesto Drive-In and the buffalo wings shop J.R. Crickets in the spotlight. And it's not the only well-known network show to shoot in Atlanta, either. AMC's "The Walking Dead" was filmed in Georgia, with Season 1 depicting Atlanta locations like Bellwood Quarry, which is now open to the public in Westside Park. The famous image of Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) riding a horse on an abandoned parkway showed the city's skyline from the Jackson Street Bridge.

Speaking of zombies and roads, if you follow the Atlanta Motor Speedway to Hampton, you'll see one location from the horror-comedy "Zombieland." Another can be found in the Atlanta suburb of Argonne Forest, which the movie passed off as Beverly Hills when it ventured into Bill Murray's mansion. Horror fans might also recognize parts of Georgia Tech and especially Agnes Scott College (from the exterior campus scenes) in "Scream 2." Together with UCLA in Los Angeles, they formed a composite of the fictional Windsor College.

The list of Atlanta filming locations goes on and on, from places like The Atlanta History Center (President Snow's mansion in "The Hunger Games" movies) to the Porsche Experience Center (the Avengers' second headquarters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). So wherever you go in Atlanta, you're not far from creating movie and TV-inspired travel memories.