Theatre District

The Theatre District is an area in Midtown Manhattan where most Broadway theatres are located, as well as many other theatres, movie theatres, restaurants, hotels and other places of entertainment. It extends from 40th Street to 54th Street, and from west of Sixth Avenue to east of Eighth Avenue, and includes Times Square. The Great White Way is the name given to the section of Broadway which runs through the Theatre District.  Theatre Row, an area on 42nd Street from Ninth Avenue to Eleventh Avenue, which contains many Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theatres, may be considered to be an extension of the Theatre District, although it is not officially a part of it.

The theaters of Broadway and the huge number of animated neon and LED signs have long made them one of New York's iconic images, and a symbol of the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan. Times Square is the only neighborhood with zoning ordinances requiring building owners to display illuminated signs. The Times Square neighborhood, notably its busiest intersection, has been featured countless times in literature, on television, in films, in music videos and recently in video games. An immediately recognizable setting, Times Square has been frequently attacked and destroyed in a number of movies, including Deep Impact, Stephen King's The Stand, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.