As part of a large -scale discourse on the future of the entertainment industry World Conference of the Milken InstituteFour Hollywood leaders have discussed the future of film and television production in the United States and in particular in the studios court in California.
While Donald Trump's social media float of “film prices” last Sunday was discussed, the leaders focused on the more concrete process which withdraws from the California legislature to extend the state tax credit to make it more competitive with other production centers that draw jobs from the local Hollywood industry.
“In terms of production that leaves here, it is almost more a Californian problem, honestly, than an American number,” said the CEO of Sony Pictures, Ravi Ahuja. “So, although it is true, a lot of production has left the United States, it is even worse for California, and there are many people – including our companies – who work on it with the government of the State and try to offer different bills that will help you.”
Ahuja was joined by Amazon MGM chief Mike Hopkins, President and Chief Executive Officer of HBO and Max Casey Bloys and the President of Television of Universal Studio Group, Pearlena Igbokwe, who all share the same feeling: they want to shoot in California, but it must have an economic meaning.
“It's a great day when you can get out of your office and go down to the set and say” hi “to your talent and see what's going on,” said Hopkins.
Igbokwe personally knows how much it can be to run television shows where managers like her work, noting that she currently has eight NBC and Peacock Productions, including “Bel-Air”, shooting on the universal backlot.
“It's a dream to be able to see your show and not have to get on a plane for five hours or 15 hours,” said Igbokwe. “It's not like we get up and say,” Oh wow, I would like to go to Budapest today. But our work is that.
“I think what is forgotten in our business is that the margins are quite modest. In any studio, it's about 10%. It's not like we were getting in a huge profit well,” added Ahuja. “Producers will tend to locate themselves in the effective place – so the more we can make the United States effective, the better.”
Bloys has also noted that a major problem with the California incentive program is that it is a program based on lottery, and projects that receive the tax credit have six months to start production or the risk of putting their credit to the incentive pool. It is this uncertainty that directs producers to other states and countries where the process of requesting incentive has more insurance.
“If California should approach this, it would be a big difference. Talent is there, the infrastructure is there,” said Bloys. “But the problem becomes when you try to plan, because [the California incentives] are capped, you cannot plan. You must enter a lottery, and you do not know if your program will get tax relief or not. “”
A pair of bills that widen the types of productions eligible for California's tax incentive has adopted several votes from the Committee and could be ready for a ground vote later this month. Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly is expected to start its budgetary process for the coming year, and part of this process will weigh the Governor Governor Newsom's proposal to increase the ceiling of the production incentive program by $ 330 million to $ 750 million.
Meanwhile, actor Jon Voight met the unions and leaders of his plan “Make Hollywood Great Again”, which would use a combination of federal tax incentive and penalties for American productions that shoot abroad to encourage more shoots in the United States.
Voight presented the proposal to President Trump during the weekend, but the only element of the plan he publicly supported is the penalties he presented in a Social media message Earlier this week. The “prices” are similar to those he imposed on China in a decision that agitated the world markets and sparked a trade war. The White House fell somewhat backwards the job on Monday saying that “no final decision” had been made and that the Trump administration “explored all the options”.
