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“The rumors are true,” a North Carolina TV station announced when the governor flew to the hometown movie studio to break the news this past week. “Tony Stark and the third installment of the Iron Man movie franchise will fly into Wilmington.” Great news for North Carolina maybe but for the Los Angeles movie and TV community it felt like a punch in the gut. Thanks to the state’s generous 25% production credit, North Carolina’s EUE/Screen Gems Studios sealed the deal. Manhattan Beach-based Marvel Studios considered making the third movie in Los Angeles just like the first two, but the 25% credit proved too hard to resist. California has a 25% credit — which excludes big budget studio productions. Marvel also considered Michigan and New Mexico but North Carolina won out because of the size of the facility as well as the tax credit.
“We aggressively pursued this piece of business,” said EUE/Screen Gems Co-Owner and COO Chris Cooney. “We negotiated hard, and it paid off.” EVP Bill Vassar pointed out that in addition to Screen Gems’ 10 sound stages the area has a large local crew base with experience handling five productions simultaneously. Iron Man 3 is expected to pump about $80 million into the local economy. “This is a great day for North Carolina,” Gov. Bev Perdue boasted. Not so great for Los Angeles, though. “Five-hundred-fifty jobs, all the other sub-jobs, the construction jobs, that’s what it’s all about to us here locally.” In addition to Iron Man 3, Perdue cited Hunger Games and a lot of other movies and TV work currently and recently all over North Carolina. “The film tax credit made a real difference.”
Too make matters worse, at a time when many other states, not just North Carolina, are aggressively pursuing location shoots, California’s tax credit program was extended after only one year because the Legislature didn’t think the financially strapped state could afford originally proposed five-year version.
L.A. wasn’t the only city that got this kind of news recently. NBC Sports announced that it was moving out of its longtime home at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan about 35 miles away to Stamford, Conn., to take advantage of tax incentives. Connecticut offers tax credits from 10% up to 30% depending on a production’s budget.
Iron Man 3, which North Carolina officials say will be the state’s biggest production yet, is expected to set up shop in Wilmington for about 10 months starting after the first of the year.
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The state of Colorado raised taxes on movie ticket prices to create a fund for filmmakers. And yet, we haven’t had a lot of movies filmed here. Working in the industry in this state, its frustrating. Please change the policy, Gov. Hickenlooper.
FYI the Screen Gems studio is unaffiliated with the Sony genre division don’t confuse them
Charlatans. Hollywood would film movies in Somalia if the tax break were big enough. It’s been proven in studies that these tax breaks/credits don’t help the communities that dole them out.
Wrong. You sound like one of those Republicans who pop up whenever the Detroit Free Press writes something about their once desirable 40-42% tax rebate incentives (which, thanks to a newly-elected Republican governor, cut those instead of actual pork spending). The North Carolina incentives isn’t nearly as generous (around 25%), but those productions keep people employed and support small businesses. Even though Marvel is getting $20M back from shooting in Wilmington, $60M is still being pumped directly to the state. (And MS only gets the money AFTER they finish shooting, not before or during production.)
And no, studios would NOT shoot any productions in a country as tumultuous and unstable like Somalia. The drug cartels and similar instability in Baja, Mexico is what pushed Fox and Walden Media to shoot “Narnia 3″ in Australia instead. So please, get that head out of your ass.
So you discredit the numerous studies that prove these tax credits don’t actually provide any benefit to local economies? Why don’t you look them up and get back to me? Republicans? It sounds like you are just selfish and are hoping to break in the film industry somehow from Detroit. If you are so valuable, why don’t the film companies hire you and take you along?
So what do you do for fun in Wilmington. You drive down to South Carolina and buy fire works. They sell fire works all year long. And in SC they sell the “good types” of fire works. And don’t forget to go have dinner at the Waffle House.
I think I’d rather have dinner at Hell’s Kitchen. You know, the one that used to be part of the Dawson’s Creek set that got turned into a real restaurant and bar when the show ended. My fingers are crossed that the same will be done for One Tree Hill’s Karen’s Cafe.
About time this made national news, I learned about this 3 weeks ago when I toured some of the One Tree Hill sets. I was beginning to wonder if the tour guides had lied to us about it because I hadn’t seen anything about. I sad because this means that One Tree Hill is really ending since Iron Man 3 will be using all of Screen Gems Studio space. Although this is great for EUE Screen Gems to have a popular movie moving in pretty much as soon as One Tree Hill moves out. Wilmington, NC is a beautiful location, with the Cape Fear River and Wrightsville Beach, and I hope to see it’s film industry continue to grow in years to come.
I’m not a drudging and I can see that as a filmmaker about to do his first feature, it is just fiscally impossible to shoot it in California.
I do not want to give one dime to the State of California because they have demonstrated over the past 20 + years that they cannot live within its means and I do not want to subsidize irresponsible behavior any longer. California has spent itself into oblivion and the extremely unfriendly business climate makes me want to give my business to another state that has its collective head screwed on straight.
I would love to give my fellow Californians work but it’s just not worth it. It’s not show friends, it’s show business. This is not about ideology, this is about reality. The reality is that California is near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to being business friendly and everyone just wants to go about their own business and think that someone is going to come along and magically fix the problem some day.
A study commissioned by Schwarzenegger, who was an abject failure, and with the support of the legislature revealed that if we were to remove all of the overregulation on the books, we would be awash in money to the tune of billions per year. We could offer tax incentives to keep filmmaking in California and we could see a return to California’s glory days. That will never happen though until we are serious as a constituency about saying enough is enough and demanding change in Sacramento. The current mindset is to tax the hell out of anyone who can make a dime here and that just doesn’t fly with me anymore, so until then, ciao, California.
Nikki, et al: if you really wanted to do a service to the Industry, you could do a multi part series about how our beloved State Government, not to mention the . . .wait for it. . .unions. . .have crippled and systematically dismantled the film business. I am not anti union. There’s a need for it to deal with workplace abuses. I am however anti union greed. There’s a difference.
You’ve shot off a bunch of assorted angry arrows above, and you may have some salient points on some.
However, I balked when I read your spiel about unions. Unions are the people involved in filmmaking, not a cheaper warehouse to rent somewhere else. We have fought for, and accomplished in many cases, good, safe working conditions and employer participation with regards to benefits – just like many other industries’ employees. We achieved these things because our employers make phenomenal profits on the work that we do, and we have all agreed that we – the combined creative talents which produce the content – should participate in the profits of our labor when they can afford to pay it.
And they can afford it. Record box office each year, especially during national economic downturns. Most major studios showing over a BILLION dollars in profits by mid-year, and multi-billions by Q3. And yet they cry “poor” to the masses and unions during negotiations, and lay off workers to fatten up their bottom line(s). While a labor action (strike) is heinous and harmful to all concerned, a strike (or threat of strike) is the only leverage a union has to stand up to greedy employers who try to strip us of our agreed-upon rights and standard of living. Other people in the film industry consistently blame unions for striking, while our employers (producers) are screwing us out of our fair wages and benefits – yet nobody seems to blame the producers. The preponderance of film industry union members are NOT above-the-line actors, directors, writers or producers who can negotiate huge ATL multi-million dollar salaries. MOST of us (99%?…..) are simply “middle-class actors and crew”, who regularly find that producers are trying to screw us out of something that’s already been agreed upon. So we have to fight for it, and we look like “the bad guy” for doing so.
You say you’re about to “do” your first feature. Fine. Running up against some union costs in CA, are you? So your answer is to shoot somewhere else where unions won’t cost you (whatever you think they’ll cost you here). Again, fine. Are you DGA and directing? Have you written this first feature yourself and are you WGA because of that? These are rhetorical questions because it sounds like you have a limited budget on this “feature” of yours, and nobody would blame you for shooting it where you could make the most of your limited budget (though I bet you’d love to achieve those minimum union rates and profit-participation for your work.)
But this news story is not about the little guy, on an extremely limited budget, trying to produce a decent film. This story is about a HUGE, WEALTHY film company with a billion-dollar film franchise cutting and running to line its pockets in a place where they can get cheaper labor, plus cash kickbacks (commonly called “Tax Incentives”) to increase their already outrageous profits – and on this particular film, those profits will be egregious.
Marvel isn’t running to NC because filming in CA is too expensive, they’re running to NC for the free cash grab.
P.S. Whichever unions you personally deem to be too expensive, keep in mind that the Teamsters will have something to say about filmmaking in SC without Teamsters on board. They effectively shut down filming in Portland, OR over two decades ago and they’ll be a presence in NC as well.
I started gagging reading your post. I urge you to watch the South Park episode “Canada Goes on Strike.” It is all about the WGA strike. I laughed so hard I was crying. I just watched it again the other day. The WGA and SAG strikes cost our industry tons of money. And what did they get in return? NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Keep gagging, Karen. Keep paying the highest taxes in the nation. You sound like you deserve it.
I totally understand what you’re saying. I am doing a union film. I get what the unions have done and they are certainly entitled to their fair share. I don’t believe in doing deferrals. My film will not go forward until the money is in the bank to pay everyone. You folks need to be paid and so do I.
That being said, I have to go with a business environment in a state that encourages people to do business in their state, not try and tax them out of existence because they don’t have the grapefruits to stand up to corrupt prison guards unions and teachers (please don’t give me the “It’s for the children” clap trap) unions, and nurses unions and tell them they can’t do business as usual because the world has changed and they need to get over themselves. And this is coming from a former teacher.
Folks, we are supposed to be the entertainment capital of the world. We are a hollow shell of what we used to be, and until the Entertainment Unions get off their collective backsides and address the issues in Sacramento, be a force for positive change, and publicly humiliate the members of the Assembly and the Senate until they make this an economically friendly state for any business so we can take care of each other, we are going to continue our descent into a banana republic and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
I just can’t stomach the idea of rewarding repugnant behavior by our politicians in Sacramento. I’m not looking for the biggest bang for my buck, but I’m doing this as a protest (like it will matter because we’re all so damned cynical in this town) against the corruption that drives good people and good businesses and great talent away.
Again, we could be in the black billions of dollars if we’d just get the clueless ones out of Sacramento and start voting in fiscally responsible representatives. Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame, and we need to hold them to account. We should all be working here in California. There should not be any reason whatsoever to go elsewhere, but until things change, I have no choice.
I will never have an independent production domiciled in CA again. You’d think the state and the likes of SAG, IATSE, Teamsters and all would have the welcome mat out. Nope! More in the form of a bare hand stretched out in front of your face with a “gimme” grin.
With the exception of still having to deal with the SAG crapola, been going elsewhere.
Nc is right to work.
Gov. Martinez has effectively killed the TV/film industry in NM by supporting a 10% cut in tax credits (formerly a competitive 25%). North Carolina 1, NM a big fat ZERO!! Sure NM has great weather, magnificent scenery, burgeoning film talent behind the scenes but it simply comes down to $$. I’m afraid the new Santa Fe Studios was for naught.
For the last 15+years, California has been losing the battle on keeping Film and TV Production in the State… Most of the shows that shoot there are TV series and Movies where the Actor/Star(s) have the leverage to keep the filming close to home… Unfortunately, the State is so freaking poor! – they have bigger issues that trump any sort of meaningful Tax Incentive Program for the Entertainment Industry – and rightfully so! (schools, hospitals, etc.).
The truth is, it’s very sad… There are so many talented people in CA that have, for many years, built a great trade and contributed to the business, but having worked all over the world (including Wilmington, NC), Californians need to stop acting like other crew members outside the State can’t do the job… They do a GREAT job in Wilmington, and most people that come there for the first time fall in love with the City and hospitality of the South. Yes, the Tax Incentive and Film Commission worked hard to land the film (as did EUE/Screen Gems Studios), but at the end of the day, there is a reason they call it Show Business… Unfortunately for CA (and other States), they either can’t compete with NC, La, GA, on an Incentive level, or choose not to. The Business side of this equation has FAR exceeded the Show side for decades, and it will not change… At the end of the day, is comes down to the money – plain and simple… It was a great ride for Production in CA, but the playing field has changed, which means people need to change with it… As for the Right-to-Work issue in NC for Filming, that is pretty much a non-factor, as the crews are almost all Union – that ship sailed a long time ago…
F@ck the producers. Hope they all visit “Deliverance” in person.
There may be some productions in NC, Lousianna, Hollywood, FL and Miami from time to time.
However, for those of you who predicted that Hollywood and the film industry will up and move to either of those locations as a new base of operations, I will give you one reason why that will never happen.
HURRICANES.
I’ll take a hurricane any day over another 5.8 earthquake, which apparently, from comments I saw after our once in a blue moon earthquake, you Californians eat for breakfast. I rather board up and stay safe inside for a couple of months in late summer, early fall, than risk having the whole building collapse on me because the ground can’t keep still.
States shouldn’t be allowed to age economic war against each other like this. And if a state wants to support a particular industry, they should give the credits to the local companies involved, not the producers.
COMPLETELY AGREE. This is the real problem, a dysfunctional union.
This has nothing to do with unions and everything to do with tax incentives
Below the line production costs are comparable everywhere in the US – and shows of this size are always union shows. In fact, the little secret on any show of this magnitude is that a small but significant number of production people and crew members live for several months in hotels and rented condos and houses paid for by the film – whether or not there is good local talent, teams tend to stay together.
Likewise, Canadian costs are not appreciably different – a sheet of plywood costs the same and much of the equipment actually costs more… the big savings is the tax over-ride offered. The Canadian dollar is now on par or sometimes worth more than the US dollar, which nullifies another past incentive for shooting in Canada.
Eastern European production costs used to be much much lower than the US, but those costs are coming closer together… but within the US & Canada, it’s all about tax breaks, not labor costs.
So much for President of Marvel Louis D’Esposito’s promise to keep Marvel films shooting in California. This is the the 4th defection.
No integrity!
You want to see a tragedy in motion just like at the collapse of the New Mexico film industry. After all the work Richardson did to get them here, Ms.Martinez lets it all ride into the sunshine. This could have cured many NM ills from 42% drop-out rate to what are we going to do with the boomer migration. Film could have been the biggest employer over Intel and Sandia/Los Alamos. Well I guess it’s back to living off the government again. You ass….’s !
I agree 100% with savvydude and I would like to stress that the absolute BIGGEST killer of Ca. right now are illegals…I know, I know, what a racist I am, what a hater. But if every tax paying, hard working, legal social security card carrying, Californian knew how M U C H feee money flows like a river to illegals every DAY in California, I bet the outrage would actually cause riots…which, in my humble, and even Christian opinion, is what we will need to get this MASSIVE problem taken care of. If any economist drew up a formula on a white board that showed Group A paying 98% percent of the taxes and Group B paying no taxes, yet Group B receiving 95% of the tax dollars for medical, housing, food stamps, welfare, education, transportation etc. etc., we would say we must get rid of Group B immediately, but then it turns out group B are actually all the illegals, then most Californian’s pussy out or become morally conflicted and just let things keep going status quo, and the draining of our state tax revenue and eventually our nations tax revenue continues until we are in fact, just another 3rd world country, with super wealthy and super poor serving them. No crystal ball fee needed nor Mis Cleo consultation required, I have just spoke a plain and simple truth.
In any business one strives for a higher profit margin. The movie business… and film producers are no different. Finally North Carolina hooked a big one! I welcome the cast and crew of Iron Man 3– smart move– choosing Wilmington. For the nay-sayers: There are Rednecks everywhere in America, even in Redding, Chico, and Lodi… Recall that “Cold Mountain”– a film story (novel) set in North Carolina, written by a North Carolinian, was considered for the shoot, but ultimately, was filmed in Romania! (The Weinstein brothers wanted to save money! Cut costs. Fatten their profits) Also recall: All of Nicholas Sparks’ North Carolina set novels, including “Message in a Bottle”, were filmed elsewhere, NOT in NC. LA needs to get over thinking its the center of the movie-making universe. Industries change– professionals thrive in the South. Hollywood has gone virtual, digital, and technology makes anywhere, anything possible elsewhere. It’s money that attracts money. Thanks to Marvel for thinking out of the Hollywood box! North Carolina’s Zephyr Productions (based in Greensboro, NC) welcomes you! And, hey, I’m a transplant from San Francisco!
@Bill H.
North Carolina is Part of America? Which part, just the white folks?
Americans come in all races nowadays Goober, lay of the moonshine and turn off Rush for a bit.
Enjoy this whole ‘every state in the union gets into Big Budget movie-making’ while it lasts, cuz you know Mexico & China are gonna take it away from All of North America somehow, someday soon.
Ive shot there several times and they have great crews. The problem is Screen Gems is right under the flight path of the airport and it gets LOUD on stages. The other problem is the stages aren’t really as big as you would find in LA. Still a nice place to shoot but it seems like they are trying to stuff an elephant into carry on luggage.
I am a former LA resident and worked a lot out there in the industry on almost every studio lot and more locations than I care to count. I am a fairly recent transplant back to NC and have found that my days now feel like they are 27 hours long, because I don’t sit in my car on a freeway everyday for three hours. The people are not stuck on themselves and their shiny rides. The weather is great! There are four seasons. There is a lot of work, and the men dont seem to whine as much. And the “bugs” are not near as bad as most of the people standing in line at Starbucks on Overland and Washington Blvd at any given hour of the day. LA is just full of haters. Most of the people working out there are transplants and feel this sense of entitlement because they after all are at the epicenter of all creative innovation. They are so creative that they choose to work on all the remakes of all the bad crap of years gone by. If they really wanted to boycott something. Boycott the studios that vomit out the rehashed stale crap that wasn’t even that good in the 70s and 80s. Welcome Ironman 3! We hope you enjoy your stay and I hope Stark Industries has developed a military grade bug spray, because the crew coming from LA will need to spray it on, because bites do leave a blemish on the skin for a few days and those LA people do hate their blemishes. Congrats North Carolina Film Commission and Legislators!
well, it’s california’s own fault. CA should have been first in line with the BEST tax credits for production. Michigan, NC and other places simply want it more. CA took it for granted and got caught out there. Pure arrogance. Well, we’re gonna have to put in more work for our supper now,aren’t we?
The so called “incentives” that are being kicked back to studios in other states are another corporate scam. Payroll companies that are based in California run all expenditures on films through dummy corporations set up in other states and charge a fee on all monies spent on a production. Including money that is spent in California or in other states. In addition, state taxes are paid to the state (like North Carolina) including the markup that is paid to the payroll company on all money spent, even if it is spent in another state. It is another clear example of corporate greed. The studios are putting money back in their pockets, the taxpayers of the “incentive” states are paying money to corporations instead of spending it on education of the states children, and no real long term jobs are created. Whichever state has the biggest kickback, that’s where the studios flock to collect the money. The 1% reap the rewards agin and the rest of us lose out.
This isn’t about California taxes or two faced Liberals. It is about more corporate welfare, plain and simple. States beat each other senseless for dwindling jobs while infrastructure, schools, and services shrink. Will all of this corporate largess at least result in a decent movie?
The finder shot the pilot and 1 week in Florida. It is at fox studios in Los Angeles. These tax incentives are ridiculous. They are crewed up with Los Angeles professionals who are either flown out there or travel themselves and work as locals. There simply aren’t any qualified people. I’ve been to Louisiana, which can’t support more than one big film with quality workers.