The first major film production company established in Chicago was Essanay Studios, which was founded in 1907 and featured a number of Charlie Chaplin shorts. One might argue that it's due to Chaplin's historic ties to the Chicago film scene, effectively launching it in the Midwest city, is what eventually paved the way for it to become a hotbed of comedic talent.

John and Jim Belushi, Bill Murray, John C. Reilly, Bernie Mac, Jack Benny, John Mulaney, Bonnie Hunt, Harold Ramis, Chris Farley, Redd Foxx, and countless other prominent comics and actors emerged from the region, which was one of the biggest proving grounds for improv comics and emerging talent who would later go on to have successful film and TV careers.

Although the early days of the Chicago film industry saw great success in the early 1900s, there was a cooling off period in the '20s and then a massive revival where tons of major productions took place in and around the city.

Of course there's the slew of Dick Wolf series like Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Fire — but also Empire, Shameless, numerous Transformers movies, Divergent, Home Alone, The Batman, Batman Begins, and tons of other notable films have all picked the Windy City as a backdrop for its filming.

You can check out the full list of noteworthy flicks that were filmed either partially of entirely in Chicago here.

And like many areas in the United States, in an effort to bring more money into the area, Chi-town has expanded its tax credits for filming incentives, meaning that production companies can get more bang for their buck filming there.

While Illinois state's tax credit program has been panned by some as being "theatrically bad," there are those who speak highly enough about it, in what seems like a bid to draw more production companies into the state. And any lambasting of its tax credits haven't seemed to slow the roll of movies being shot in the state, either.