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Sad news from Michigan. But many, including myself, saw this one coming from the beginning. Raleigh’s Pontiac Studios, the flagship state-of-the-art $80 million studio complex is reportedly going to default on a bond payment next month and, tragically, the state’s pension funds are on the hook for over $600,000. From The Detroit News: Michigan’s...
I tend to stay out of the debate about copyright and online piracy. For the major studios in Hollywood, led by the MPAA, piracy is the monolithic issue, especially because of pending legislation in DC that has pitted Hollywood and Silicon Valley against each other. Even if the pending legislation is as bad as...
The Film Works blog posted an astonishg article today about the negative impact to the economy of an NBA lockout vs. the loss of film productions to other states and nations. In what should really help drive the message home to California residents of just how critical the film industry is to the state,...
It’s time for some “deleted scenes” that will not be making it into the final version of my forthcoming law review article, “Down the Rabbit Hole: The Madness of State Film Incentives as a ‘Solution’ to Runaway Production“, which will be published by the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Business Law later this year. ...
There is a fantastic post on the Film Works blog that has a fairly detailed breakdown of the major expenditures of a major film production that spent $20.2 million over 93 days shooting in Los Angeles in 2009. Here is a sample of the itemized expenditures: Hotel room days: 213 $66,061 Car rental days:...
A war of words between the Los Angeles Times’ Michael Hiltzik, the LAEDC and the MPAA has erupted over Hiltzik’s recent editorial attacking the LAEDC’s recent report about the California film incentive. In short, Hiltzik is of the opinion that because of the mere fact the MPAA paid for the report, that fact alone...
The incompetence at the Detroit Free Press is breathtaking. Who is running this newspaper? I am just waiting to see them start quoting Wikipedia. Over the weekend were two gems in their film incentive “news reporting”. The first was from an article about using alternative methods to keep the Michigan film industry competitive: One...
The MPAA blog is making for some interesting, if not frustrating, reading. For example, in a post about Louisiana today, MPAA blogger Kate Spence wrote the following: Now third in line behind California and New York for the number of productions produced, Louisiana’s motion picture and television industry is responsible for 16,483 jobs in...
Below is the first half of the Film Works campaign’s analysis of the brand new LAEDC study on the economic impact of the California film incentive. It is quite thorough and is a honest appraisal of the report, which some people are attempting to spin as showing a positive return on investment for the...
I don’t want to keep being critical of the MPAA, but the organization just keeps making mistakes. They really need to change the way they sell the idea of film incentives. They need to stop making claims film incentives generate revenue for states because it’s just not true. To insist otherwise is a lie. ...
Louisiana lawmakers are arguing over whether the state can afford the annual operating costs for a proposed 424-bed $1.2 billion hospital in New Orleans, nearly a decade after the state closed Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina: Supporters of the proposed $1.2 billion University Medical Center defended it’s strengths for the New Orleans metro area...
There is a general consensus that producers, studios and filmmakers who take advantage of generous film incentives are not to blame for runaway production, but rather the underlying incentive. Filmmaking is a highly competitive business and the stakes are huge. Most films lose money, and one big-budget flop can sink a studio. If a...
If it sounds too good to be true…… The State of Georgia is making money from its film incentive program, according to a February 2011 report published by Vancouver-based (of all places) Meyers Norris Penny (MNP) and Santa Monica-based W2 Entertainment. They claim that although the tax credits issued from 2005-2010 cost the state...
The final days of the excessive Michigan film incentive are playing out in dramatic fashion. I have to admit, I thought the following PSA produced for the Michigan Production Alliance was quite good, in terms of the emotional impact it makes. It had one on me, in any event. That said, I also had...
The brief interview below made me gasp at the end, when I heard how much money this one motion picture catering business in Los Angeles spends at just one of its many vendors, who are also in California. I think this highlights the very real danger to California from runaway production. The losses and...
The numbers say it all……. Click on the individual pages from the 2010 Michigan Senate Analysis, which is available in the “Report Library”, for a full-size image:
The new economic impact report for Louisiana was released today and is available in the Report Library under Louisiana. I will be digesting it over the next week or so, but wanted to post the highlight that jumped out at me most. In 2010 alone, Louisiana spent $97.6 million to subsidize just four movies. ...
A total of five annual reports about the New York state film incentive program from the NY Dept. of Taxation & Finance have been added to the Report Library. In addition to these reports, I also added the January 2011 “Progress Report” from the California Film Commission as well as a 2007 report on...
The following table is from the 2009 ERA report for Louisiana, which is available in the report library. As seen in the table, less than half of the production spending went to the benefit of the state. From 2002-2007, the combined total budgets for all features filmed in Louisiana was $2.3 billion, of which...
In the last of the three posts on Canada, here is a compilation of some of the more interesting charts, figures and statistics from the various Canadian reports recently added to the Report Library. Want to know how much Canada is spending on foreign productions in British Columbia? The following data is from the...
Variety.com – H'w'd and D.C.