Lights, Camera, Action! How Hollywood Studio Tours Pay Off For Los Angeles

Tours of Hollywood studios help Los Angeles generate more than $100 billion a year worth of tourism, according to a report Saturday.

Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. all offer visitors a chance to peer behind the scenes of the entertainment industry and see sets, costumes and props from iconic movies and TV shows including "Psycho," "Back to the Future" and "Friends."

Each studio offers various levels of tours, with ticket prices starting at $55 each for a two-hour walking tour of the Sony Pictures Studio, CNBC said.

At the upper end, the priciest VIP tickets at Universal Studios cost $499 each, with the price covering extended backstage access, a private trolley, a buffet lunch and front-of-the-line access for all rides and attractions at its theme park, according to CNBC.

"Touring the studios, being able to go where this stuff happened, to be in the physical space of all these things that for over 100 years now people have been watching, seems the most natural kind of tourist destination in the world," said Robert Thompson, a professor of television, radio and film at Syracuse University in upstate New York.

None of the studios would detail their visitor numbers to CNBC or say how much money the tours bring in each year.

But the Los Angeles Department of Public Works said the film industry — including the studio tours, famed Hollywood sign, Hollywood Walk of Fame and TCL Chinese Theaters, formerly known as Grauman's — was responsible for over $100 billion in tourism annually.

At Warner Bros., tourists can visit an interactive sound stage that shows how movies and TV programs are made, and buy refreshments at a re-creation of the Central Perk coffee shop featured in NBC's "Friends."

Visitors to Paramount can see famed director Alfred Hitchcock's former office and tour a prop warehouse, as well as speak with lighting crew members and sign makers.

"Los Angeles is the only destination in the world where guests can visit multiple working studio lots, located in distinct neighborhoods in our city," said Adam Burke, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism Board and Convention Board.

"While visitors are often drawn to studio tours by their favorite TV shows or movies...we hope they leave with a deeper understanding of the entertainment industry, LA's unique culture and the city's vibrant creative legacy."