The film industry has already pretty much abandoned Hollywood, devastating thousands of jobs, but now it is abandoning Georgia and other southern states, where it went after dumping LaLaLand. And it’s all about the Benjamins.
Georgia, which has been called the “Hollywood of the South,” created an entire industry in the Peach State after a suite of tax breaks were initiated as an incentive to entice film and TV production to the state. Other nearby states, such as Louisiana, also jumped on the bandwagon. And it worked for years. But now, Hollywood has found another — and cheaper — sugar daddy overseas.
The Wall Street Journal reports that many Hollywood productions are fleeing Georgia for the U.K. because Britain — and other European locations — are now offering even heftier tax breaks as well as cheaper labor costs than Georgia and other U.S. states.
“Tax incentives lured studios to help build the ‘Hollywood of the South.’ Now they’re going overseas for cheaper labor costs,” the paper reported.
The Journal notes that Disney and Marvel are leading the charge to abandon the U.S.A.
Film production spending in Georgia has dropped by nearly 50 percent in the post COVID era, dropping from 412 projects in 2022 to only 245 by June of this year.
Georgia is not alone. The paper noted that 29 percent fewer productions with budgets over $40 million are working this year in the U.S.A. compared to the rate in 2022. Meanwhile, the productions in the U.K. have risen by 16 percent.
It may be unsurprising that Disney is leading the charge to abandon Georgia and the U.S.A. After spending the last 15 years attacking states like Georgia and Florida for daring to uphold traditional American values. Disney on particular claimed it was standing on the principles that it wants promulgated in America by pushing pro trans, pro gay, and anti-Israel policies. But now Disney is running to Europe because of the money. Disney is not only abandoning the U.S. for cash, it is abandoning all its supposed advocacy for left-wing “values” by leaving the U.S. behind. Apparently its “principles” were never all that important.
Disney and Marvel are not the only ones to abandon the U.S. Universal and others have also begun setting up shop in the U.K.
In May, the president suggested slapping a 100 percent tariff on films made overseas, but he has said nothing whatever about U.S. studios fleeing the U.S. for foreign nations.
Of course, he has not really tried to flesh out the plans for that tariff and the idea has not been implemented. But he has started making plans for group to begin looking at the challenges Hollywood is facing as budgets tighten and viewership falls. In January, he appointed Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, and Sylvester Stallone as “special ambassadors” to help meet those challenges.
“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” the president wrote at the time. “They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to foreign countries, BACK — BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
Regardless, it is tough times for the once economically bulletproof entertainment industry as tens of thousands of jobs have been erased, most unlikely to ever come back. And with artificial intelligence entering through the side door, even more industry jobs will be lost over the next decade.
It has already been estimated that Hollywood is on track to erase 200,000 jobs thanks to the introduction of generative AI. And that is a permanent development.
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