Georgia Nearly Becomes the Filmmaking Capital of the World

The annual film location study is released and New York drops to sixth place.

FilmLA, the non-profit film office the works for the greater Los Angeles area has conducted their yearly survey of the world’s film industry analyzing the shooting locations of US feature films. To no one’s surprise, California is currently ranked 1st for the most film productions. Surprisingly, however, New York dropped to sixth place.

The 2015 Feature Film Production study analyzed 109 films released last year, identifying where they were filmed and how much money the spent on production. According to the study, 19 of these films filmed in California, bringing an estimated $720 million in total production spending in the state. The large number of productions is largely due to California’s film making capital Hollywood and their tax credit system, which provides studios with the opportunity to receive money for filming in the state. Some popular films filmed in California include the box-office hit movie Straight Outta Compton.

Los Angeles was extremely popular filming location in 2015. Approximately 608 feature films shot were shot in LA, up from 580 feature films the year before. However, it’s important to keep in mind that a large majority of these movies were indie films.

Here’s the breakdown of the top 5 filming locations

1. California (16 Projects)
2. United Kingdom (15 Projects)
3. Georgia (12 Projects)
4. Louisiana (12 Projects)
5. Canada (11 Projects)
6. New York (7 Projects)

While fewer feature films were produced in the UK, the country’s total production budget spending exceeded California by 150%, which means moves that film in the UK have a greater economic impact and spend way more money. So how does the UK do it? Well, productions receive 20 to 25% tax credits on certain production costs.

Related:

• Study: Average Georgia Film Jobs Pay Lower Than Other States

• Georgia Filmed ‘The Birth of a Nation’ is The Biggest Movie at Sundance

• How the Georgia Film Academy will Transform Georgia’s Film Industry

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