Report: California Tops for Film Production Spending

California was the primary location of 12 out of the top 100 feature films released domestically last year, making it fourth on a list in a report released Tuesday by FilmL.A. The state had the highest direct spending at $30 billion when it came to film and television production, making it more than New York, Georgia, Louisiana, the United Kingdom and Canada combined. The report from FilmL.A., the Hollywood nonprofit that coordinates location filming permits in Los Angeles, unincorporated county and other jurisdictions, focused on where feature films were made, where post-production and visual effects work was done, production spending and number of jobs created. The report said that production spending was a more important number from an economic standpoint than project count. “Total production spending also creates a ripple effect in the economy,” the report stated. “This generates indirect and induced economic impacts that can positively affect people and businesses not personally employed in the film industry.” With 12 out of the 100 top movies released last year, California was second to the United Kingdom in terms of money that stayed in the state at $851 million. It was No. 1, however, in terms of the percentage of the production spending that stayed here with 86 percent. Out of the 12 feature films filmed primarily in California, seven were live action and five were animated (which had a combined total budget of $770 million or 78 percent of the total production spend in the state). Three of the live action films – “The Conjuring 2,” “Ouija: Origin of Evil” and “Why Him” – received California tax credits. The state was not a primary filming location for any film released last year with a budget of $100 million or more. The largest live-action movie budget spent in California was “Why Him?” which spent $52 million in the state.