If a House Could Win an Oscar, We’d Nominate These

“American Beauty” isn’t exactly a feel-good movie. Still, the Burnhams’ house — from its white picket fence to perfectly manicured lawn — has terrific curb appeal. It’s the ideal American home (minus the bad marriage, of course).


Credit: Everett Collection

The 1997 movie “The Fifth Element” predicted the micro-apartment trend with this pod-like home Bruce Willis’s character lives in. Space-maximizing features include a concealed twin bed, a refrigerator that pops up from the floor, and a gun rack hidden in the ceiling.


Credit: Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection

The apartment in the 1958 movie “Auntie Mame” gets remodeled almost as often as the movie’s namesake changes costumes. Located at 3 Beekman Place, Mame’s home reflected her motto, “Life is a banquet — and some poor suckers are starving to death.”


Credit: Everett Collection

Matthew Broderick may have been the star of the 1986 movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but this Highland Park, Ill., garage steals top billing when Ferris’ best bro, Cameron Frye, drives his father’s prized 1961 Ferrari though one of the garage’s glass walls. Check out our slideshow on wonderful garages.


Credit: Robert Harshman, photographer

“A Christmas Story” is arguably one of the best holiday movies ever made. No wonder the iconic home featured in the flick is open to the public year-round. Across the street from Ralphie’s house you’ll find the official Christmas Story Museum, featuring original props and costumes from the film. Don’t forget to pick up your own Leg Lamp Award from the gift shop.  


Credit: Tony Hoffarth

The 1948 movie “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” takes the position it’s cheaper to improve than move. Cary Grant plays an advertising executive who decides it’s best to relocate when he discovers his wife, played by Myrna Loy, plans to remodel their New York City apartment. The couple makes every mistake possible when it comes to buying and building a house, including paying above-market value for a 200-year-old tear-down.


Credit: Everett Collection

In “The Money Pit,” Tom Hanks and Shelley Long’s two-week home renovation drags on for months. The flick is a good reminder that remodels can wreck a marriage while draining your bank account. Thankfully, this restoration project has a happy ending, and HouseLogic has great tips for planning your remodel the right way.


Credit: Universal Pictures/Everett Collection

Unfortunately, no one ever saw this beautiful Victorian home on the silver screen. It was used in the movie “Haunting in Salem” and it went straight to video. We think painting all that elaborate trim is probably a pretty horrific job, too. (But not as horrific as these exterior paint jobs.)


Credit: Tony Hoffarth

Built in 1924, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, with its extraordinary textile block facade, has graced the silver screen since 1933. Films such as “Black Rain,” “Blade Runner,” “The Day of the Locust,” “The Rocketeer,” and “Rush Hour” have made this residential dwelling a true movie star. In 2011, the concrete structure was purchased for around $4.5 million.


Credit: Tony Hoffarth

When the movie “It’s Complicated” hit the silver screen, garden blogs went into a tizzy about the lush vegetation Meryl Streep’s character lovingly tends. Although the producers deny that the garden was digitally created, they admit that the plants were all grown under strict supervision in a greenhouse before being transplanted to the set.


Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal/Everett Collection

Believe it or not, the home on the left is a real replica of Disney/Pixar’s “Up” house. The builder recreated many of the sweet details from the original digital home, including the mailbox and weather vane. But a few realistic additions, including a basement and a detached two-car garage, were included to make this home more appealing to non-animated characters. Currently, two real-life fans of Carl and Ellie live here. Doesn’t that make your heart swell?


Credit: Bangerter Homes / UP / Carl Fredricksen / Disney/Pixar

If you ask us, the historical drama “Gone with the Wind” is all about real estate and the grip the homes have on their characters. Tara, Twelve Oaks, the house Rhett builds for Scarlett, and even Aunt Pittypat’s abode all have a pivotal role in the movie. In the end, when Scarlett exclaims, “Tara! Home. I’ll go home … after all … tomorrow is another day!” she affirms the idea that there’s no place like home.


Credit: Everett Collection

The romantic 1987 film “Moonstruck” made us fall in love with the ginormous 4,200 sq. ft, four-story Brooklyn Heights townhouse where Cher’s character lived. The former owners of this 1829 brick Federal purchased the home for a whopping $40,000 in 1959 (the average cost for a new home that year was $12,400). They made back about 100 times that amount when the home was sold in 2008 for nearly $4 million.


Credit: Devyn Caldwell

If you like these, you may want to check out HouseLogic’s library of slideshows.