Disney Film Wins State Tax Credit

Twenty-eight feature film productions were chosen to receive financial help in the second year of the state’s California’s expanded Film & Television Tax Credit Program. Among the films that will be made in California is the big budget “A Wrinkle in Time,” from Walt Disney Co. in Burbank. With a budget over $75 million, the film would not have been eligible to receive tax credits under the first incarnation of the program that expired after 2014. California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch said it is films like “A Wrinkle in Time” that are most vulnerable to being lured away to other states with competing tax credit programs. “California’s expanded tax credit program is working as intended, and this project alone will employ hundreds of in-state crew members and visual effects artists,” Lemisch said in a prepared statement. In a bid to retain and attract production jobs and economic activity across California, Gov. Jerry Brown signed bipartisan legislation in September 2014 to more than triple the size of California’s film and television production incentive, from $100 million to $330 million annually. The program also changed to accept projects with any budget size. The 28 projects chosen – 18 from studios and 10 from independent production companies – will share $109 million in tax credits. The criteria used in picking qualified projects includes ranking each project by wages to below-the-line workers and qualified spending for vendors and equipment. “A Wrinkle in Time,” for example, is expected to bring in $88 million in qualified spending, and $44 million in wages paid to below-the-line workers. Other projects receiving tax credits include “A Star is Born,” from Warner Bros. Studios, and “Game Night,” “Private Benjamins” and “Tag” from New Line Productions, a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, in Burbank.