Hollywood in Georgia
Among the other high-profile projects underway or that have wrapped in Georgia: action-thriller “Taken 3” with Liam Neeson, “Insurgent” (the sequel to “Divergent”) and AMC zombie thriller “The Walking Dead.”
Production spending
Below is the total amount of money spent in television and film in Georgia.
Fiscal year 2007: $132.5 million
Fiscal year 2008: $260.4 million
Fiscal year 2009: $647.6 million
Fiscal year 2010: $659.3 million
Fiscal year 2011: $689.3 million
Fiscal year 2012: $879.8 million
Fiscal year 2013: $933.9 million
Fiscal year 2014: $1.4 billion
Source: Georgia Department of Economic Development
Hollywood film and television spending in Georgia ballooned by 50 percent in the past fiscal year, with Katniss Everdeen and lucrative tax incentives playing major roles, state officials said Tuesday.
The movie and television industry shot 158 projects in Georgia in the 12 months ended in June, up 11 percent from last year. But direct spending surged to $1.4 billion from $934 million a year ago, largely because of bigger budget flicks.
California and New York remain the top film and TV production states by far. The Hollywood Reporter ranked Georgia third in 2013. That's in no small part due to some of the more generous incentives in the nation.
Critics say the tax credits, designed to lure productions to the state, are a costly giveaway to a rich industry and create mainly lower-wage jobs for locals.
But if those incentives were to ever dry up, experts on both sides of the issue say, so would Georgia’s movie business.
Young-adult fantasy-action franchises such as “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2,” the concluding sequels to the saga of Everdeen and the rebellion she leads in a dystopian future, were among a slew of big-budget projects that have come to Georgia as the state’s production infrastructure has grown, said Lee Thomas, the head of Georgia’s film office.
"We're getting a healthy mix," Thomas said, from big movies to scripted television series such as The Walking Dead, the hit series filmed largely in the south metro area, to independent films and reality TV series.
More high-dollar projects could be on the way with the recent opening of the Pinewood Studios complex in Fayette County. Developer Jim Jacoby has plans for the Atlanta Media Campus, a film studio and education center along I-85 near Norcross, and filmmaker Tyler Perry is in talks to buy a broad swath of Fort McPherson for an expanded studio complex.
The growth comes at a cost to Georgia taxpayers.
Production companies can earn a credit of up to 30 percent of what they spend on qualifying projects. What they can’t use to defer their own taxes — many aren’t based here and have little tax liability — they can sell for cash at upward of 90 cents on the dollar.
Other companies that buy the credits can then use them to reduce their Georgia tax bills.
Film tax credits resulted in a hit of at least $250 million to the state treasury from 2008 to 2011, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The state did not provide the value of incentives for 2014 in Tuesday’s report on spending.
Tax credits and other types of film incentives are controversial, and several states have curtailed them because of concerns about cost. Lawmakers in North Carolina, one of Georgia’s top competitors, are debating whether to cap or eliminate their program.
Both the conservative Tax Foundation and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center research group, criticize perks for Hollywood, arguing they don’t provide much bang for the considerable public bucks.
Often, the local jobs created are for lower-wage behind the camera work, whereas higher paid lead acting, screenwriting and directing jobs, go to Hollywood pros.
Georgia’s system that allows producers to count the high wages for “above the line” talent — such as out-of-state actors and directors — towards their in-state spending. That in turn can boost the value of the credits.
In a news release, Gov. Nathan Deal’s office said the industry directly employs 23,500 people in Georgia, with nearly 8,200 production-related employees. The state claims the film industry had a $5.1 billion economic impact during the 2014 fiscal year.
The state’s top lawmakers roundly support the incentives.
“I will continue my commitment to growing this industry and to developing a film-ready workforce to meet the needs of the productions that are setting up shop in Georgia,” Deal said.
Last month, the state held a summit with top film experts to gauge the changing needs of the industry. Many of the business leaders who spoke said the state needs more production talent, so producers don't have to import workers with special skills.
Chris Carr, the state’s economic development commissioner, said more than 90 firms related to the film industry have come to Georgia since 2008.
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