Hawaii Film Blog

Thursday, December 29, 2005

New York Rings Up the Old Year


The view from Brooklyn's Steiner Studios, NYC's newest soundstage and studio facility.

Film and TV types in New York City are rejoicing to the tune of $600 million
--that's the amount of new production expenditures generated by the
"Made in NY" Incentive Program that became effective in January '05. The program, administered by NYC's Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB), is chock full of goodies, including:
  • 10% state tax credit for film/TV productions that shoot 75% of their production in NY soundstages
  • 5% city tax credit for same
  • $50 million overal credit cap per year
  • Marketing program: in exchange for .1% contribution to an arts non-profit, productions get free ads worth 1% of their budgets on city-owned media outlets like subway/bus billboards and local TV and radio stations
  • Vendor discount program
  • Independent Film Training Grant Initiative: grants of up to $25,000 for productions with budgets of less than $3 million to select local production companies for hiring locals

MOFTB reports that the program has done wonders for an already robust production industry (average of $5B in annual production expenditures and 100K workforce). Here's what incentives have done for NYC:

  • $600 million in new production
  • 6,000 new jobs
  • Total of 250 movies
  • Total of 100 new and continuing TV productions
  • Stimulated business at local vendors (e.g., discount card brought $15K in new revenue to Apple-Metro Restaurants within the first 3 months of the program)
  • Recent Filmography: "The Interpreter," "The Squid and the Whale," Scorsese's "The Departed" (set in Boston), "Fast Track" (Staten Island standing in for Ohio), "The Producers."

MOFTB has retained Boston Consulting Group to keep tabs on how the incentive program is doing. So far, almost all the $50 million allocated for credits in 2005 has been used up.

>>
N.Y. gives credit to '05 incentives [Hollywood Reporter, 12/29/05]
>>
Gotham incentives bring in $600 mil [Variety, 12/29/05]

RELATED POSTS:
NYC Strikes Out
States Cannibalizing States
Doom & Gloom for L.A. Film Industry
Beantown as Tinseltown
Meanwhile in Gotham...
Film Incentives That Aren't Tax Credits

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