Written by new-contact on May 29, 2013. Posted in Incentive News

California loses summer movies as Hollywood chases better filming incentives

California lost most of this summer’s biggest movies to locations with better filming incentives. While Iron Man 3 filmed mostly in North Carolina and White House Down shot in Montreal, Star Trek Into Darkness was the only major summer feature to shoot extensively in California.

“None of these pictures would be elsewhere if it wasn’t for the tax credits,” California Film Commission’s Amy Lemisch told Bloomberg: “It’s quite a lot of work to take a production on the road.”

“The industry is still here, but because of incentives it’s slowly bleeding,” Joseph Chianese, of Hollywood payroll services company Entertainment Parters, added to the outlet: “If you can get everything you need somewhere else, plus someone subsidising the cost of your film, you have to go.”

California has a much smaller annual film fund than eastern rivals like New York and applications are processed through a lottery system. What’s more, films with budgets higher than USD75 million do not qualify for support.

(Star Trek still: Paramount Pictures)