"Black Panther" left a lot of green in Georgia.
The Marvel blockbuster due out Feb. 16 spent $73 million, Motion Picture Association of America Chairman and CEO Charles H. Rivkin said during the red carpet ahead of Wednesday night's premiere at the Fox Theatre.
"When a movie's made, it's not just the actors and the technicians," he said. "It's all the community that benefits. It's the caterers and the hairdressers and the florists. Local businesses, most of them small to medium enterprises."
Overall, the film industry produced a $9 billion economic impact in Georgia last year, and generated 100,000 jobs, Rivkin said.
"These are good jobs, high-paying jobs and union jobs. More movies were made in Georgia than in any nation on earth last year," he said. "That's pretty impressive. I've spent most of my life in Hollywood, and they're definitely taking notice."