N.C. remakes itself as a home for mid-budget movies and TV shows
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Despite North Carolina's film industry evolution over the past decade, creating movies and television shows here continues to provide a large economic impact, according to an industry deep dive by WUNC's show "The Broadside."
Why it matters: Movie and television productions generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state most years. They've made Wilmington famous as the setting for shows like "Dawson's Creek" and movies like "Iron Man 3."
Driving the news: But the types of products coming to North Carolina in 2024 are different than what the state saw in the early 2010s, according to WUNC's Charlie Shelton-Ormond.
- That period was the heyday of filming in North Carolina, with productions like "One Tree Hill" and "The Conjuring" in Wilmington, as well as "Homeland" in Charlotte.
Context: No matter how beautiful North Carolina is as a set, financial incentives are one of the biggest deciding factors to where studios put their films, Guy Gaster, director of the North Carolina Film Office, told "The Broadside."
- In the early 2000s, North Carolina offered a 25% tax credit for productions that hit certain spending thresholds in the state.
- In 2014, however, state lawmakers tweaked the incentive to a 25% rebate, but significantly lowered the cap on how much a project could get.
Between the lines: In effect, this has made North Carolina home for mid-size productions, like "Halloween Kills" or "The Summer I Turned Pretty," while big "Avengers-"style movies have gravitated toward states like Georgia that have no cap.
By the numbers: Attracting mid-size productions can still be good business.
- In 2012, before the 2014 incentives change, both "Iron Man" and "The Hunger Games" were filmed here. The state saw direct spending from the film industry reach $376 million and create 20,000 job opportunities.
- In 2021, though, the state broke that record with $416 million spent and more than 28,000 jobs.
- By 2022, the number was $258 million. 2023's figure fell to around $80 million, with labor strikes affecting the film industry. As of July 1, the industry generated around $140 million, according to "The Broadside."
The bottom line: 2021's number benefitted from pent-up demand from the pandemic, and recent years have been hamstrung by labor strikes.
- Gaster told "The Broadside" that $300 million per year is a realistic target for the state.
What they're saying: "The new reality for the film industry in North Carolina is that we're not getting those tentpole movies, like 'Iron Man 3,' because those aren't the right fit for [the state's] financial incentives," Shelton-Ormond told Axios.
- "Instead of one 'Iron Man,'" he added, "We might have four movies that are mid-budget. They might not be really grabbing as many headlines ... but they're still coming to the state."