A total of $330 million in tax credits were awarded to five major motion pictures and 46 independent features, according to the commission. The state incentive will allow production companies in California to qualify for spending and sales tax exemptions.
Collectively, the productions are estimated to spend nearly $350 million in wages and generate about $578 million in expenditures throughout the state, the film commission reported.
The latest round of movies to receive the tax credits will be filmed in Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Oakland, Ojai, Merced, San Diego, and other counties. Officials expect the filming to stimulate local economies with new jobs and spending.
“The devastating wildfires in Southern California have presented unprecedented challenges for our film and television community, disrupting more than a dozen productions within our Film and Television Tax Credit Program alone and impacting countless more,” said Colleen Bell, director of the California Film Commission.
The productions selected include a new film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (The Daniels) and producer Jonathan Wang, who produced the 2022 film “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture.
The team’s new project, which is still untitled, will receive nearly $21 million in tax credits and is expected to generate about $62 million in wages and $107 million in spending, the film commission estimated.
Twentieth Century Studios secured $5.7 million in tax credits for its “Business Women” film, which is expected to create $27.6 million in wages and spend more than $49 million.
A third movie, “Behemoth!” by Dialogue Industries, received $7.4 million in tax credits. The film could bring more than $36 million in spending and generate nearly $29 million in wages, the film commission said.
“Cut Off” by Warner Bros. Pictures will get $10 million in tax credits, and is expected to generate $28.3 million in wages and spend $49 million.
Another project, an “Untitled Drag Queen Movie” by World of Wonder Productions and produced by the drag queen RuPaul Charles, received $1.7 million in tax credits. The film commission expects it to generate $4.4 million in wages and spend $6.6 million in the state.
“As someone who’s produced a TV series in Los Angeles for 17 years, I’m thrilled that our feature film, ‘Untitled Drag Queen Movie,’ is receiving tax credits from the California Film Commission,” Charles said in a statement Wednesday. “These incentives have been instrumental in supporting our financing. And best of all, we’re getting people back to work.”
Other independent projects approved include “Animals,” “Not Her,” “Phantom,” and “A Bobby Thing.”
The governor said California lost an estimated $1.6 billion in production spending between 2020 and 2024 to other states, which impacted state jobs and local economies.
State legislators are working on bills to expand the program.
“[Entertainment Partners] serves productions wherever they film, and as a consequence, we are uniquely positioned to see the decline in California’s once dominant position as the leading state for film and television production,” company President and CEO Markham Goldstein wrote in a letter to state Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City) and Assemblyman Nick Schultz (D-Burbank).
“The reduced production in California is due to many factors, but most prominent among these is that the California tax credit program is simply not competitive enough when measured against those programs in other states and countries with which California competes,” Goldstein wrote. “As a result, productions that could be made in California are increasingly being filmed elsewhere, taking tens of thousands of jobs with them.”
Newsom signed a five-year extension of the program in 2023, and added new workforce diversity provisions and the nation’s first safety on production pilot program.
Tax credits also became refundable for the first time this year, meaning a filmmaker could get the money even if it owed no tax.
