The Founder: Where it Was Filmed and Why

by Lewis Robinson

The 2016 hit movie, "The Founder," tells the story of the founding of McDonald's. The film is set primarily in Minnesota, where Ray Kroc got his start. However, the locations that you see on screen can't actually be found anywhere in the gopher state. Instead, Atlanta and several surrounding cities stood in for the various locations in the film. Here's a look at which places may have stood in for your favorite scenes.

Douglasville, Georgia

Throughout the film, multiple McDonald's franchises across the country are shown. In actuality, most of those varied locations were shot in the same spot- the old police station parking lot in Douglasville, to be exact. Crews built a single recreation of an early McDonald's restaurant in the parking lot, and then repainted parking lines, switched out signs, and shuffled around the vintage cars hired for the film to make the building look like several other restaurants. This helped keep down construction costs while still providing locations that look very different in the finished film. For a cross-industry comparison, it's not dissimilar to how 5G network slicing allows multiple networks to run on the same physical infrastructure. It's also an excellent example of movie magic.

Newnan, Georgia

Located about 40 minutes south of Atlanta, Newnan is perhaps best recognized as a frequent backdrop for AMC's "The Walking Dead." However, a surprising number of films have been shot here. For "The Founder," a recreation of the very first octagonal McDonald Brothers restaurant was built over several weeks in the employee back parking lot of the Coweta County Administration building. During filming, the film crew had to contend with frequent traffic from employees and residents with business in the building, as well as an active freight train track located just 300 ft away from the set. 

Avondale Estates, Georgia

Several pivotal scenes in the movie take place at Ray Kroc's home. In truth, he lived in the Chicago area. If you wanted to visit the house from the film, however, you wouldn't be wise to book a ticket to the Windy City. Instead, the stand-in for the founder's home can be found nestled in a suburb in Dekalb County, Georgia. Avondale Estates was founded in 1924 with an eye for recreating Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. The historic homes and streets provided the perfect setting for recreating Ray's midcentury home.

East Lake Country Club, Atlanta, Georgia

The Chicago-based Rolling Green Country Club is another key location from the film. There, Ray tries to convince his fellow members to invest in his first McDonald's franchises. He doesn't find a lot of success on the greens, unfortunately. These scenes were shot at the East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, which has the distinction of being the oldest country club in Atlanta. It's also the home of renowned golfer, Bobby Jones. Avid golf fans may recognize the course, as it is also the site of the prestigious TOUR Championship of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. This history made the club the perfect site for a mid-1960s setting.

J. Mack Robinson College of Business Administration, Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia State University's campus is set right in the downtown area of Atlanta. The building housing their school of business administration, located on Broad Street, played the part of the First Federal Savings & Loan. In the film, Ray Kroc's mortgage comes due and he is summoned to the bank to pay it. While there, a financial consultant named Harry Sonneborn overhears Ray's financial woes. Sonneborn offers to review Ray's books and hits upon a solution that changes the course of McDonald's forever. It's a very fitting scene to take place in a college of business administration.

Atlanta and the surrounding area offer a wide range of settings that can fit with a wide range of movies. The state offers numerous tax credits and financial incentives to movie studios, which helps drive projects into the state. In "The Founder," Georgia did its best to play Minnesota and helped us all learn a little bit more about the restaurant chain that feeds 1% of the Earth's population every single day.