HOW MUCH OF “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” IS ACTUALLY FILMED IN CHICAGO?

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off it sometimes feels like the setting is more important than the plot. When people in Chicago talk about our “Chicago movies” like: The Dark Knight, The Blue Brothers, or Fred Claus. I think it’s safe to say that most people have Ferris Bueller at the top or close to the top of their lists. When you’re talking about Chicago movies, you can’t get much more Chicago than Ferris Bueller.

So that got me thinking. How much of the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a film many consider a quintessential Chicago film, is actually shot in Chicago, not the burbs, but Chicago proper? So let’s go on a little tour of the filming locations in Ferris Bueller and figure out what percentage of this movie is actually in Chicago.

Watch the video above for a full breakdown with looks at the locations today or continue below for the cold hard data.

VIDEO SPOILERS BELOW

Adding up all the scenes that are shot in chicago we get a total of 19 minutes and 21 seconds of real Chicago scenes.
That means that only 19% of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is actually shot in Chicago.

Why is that? After going through the film scene by scene I noticed that a lot of screen time is given to the Principle and Jeanie, Ferris’s sister, who both spend 100% of the movies runtime in the Chicago Suburbs or filming in LA. When it’s just Ferris though it’s mostly Chicago and most of the memorable scenes are in Chicago so I can see how someone like me thought it would be closer to 75%, but nope, it’s 19%.

You know what, I bet if you count all of the Chicagoland scenes then that number is in the 90 to 95% range. Let’s check, all I have to do is remove all the footage that was filmed in Los Angeles.

Surprisingly, 39 minutes and 58 seconds of the movie is filmed in LA. That means 39% of Ferris Bueller's Day Off is in LA, more than double the Chicago count. So with LA getting 39% and Chicago getting only 19% that means that 42% belongs to the Suburbs. This is extremely surprising information. Just 61% is shot in Chicagoland. That’s a lot, but not as high as expected.

Now, even with this new information. I still consider Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to be a quintessential Chicago movie. Sure actual Chicago location filming is only 19% of the movie, but 100% feels like Chicago. All the activities Ferris does on his day off are very Chicago focused. Chicagoans are famous for randomly taking over parades.