CMU School of Drama


Thursday, November 29, 2018

Pennsylvania Subsidized Creed II With $16 Million in Tax Breaks, Even Though It Mostly Takes Place in California

Hit & Run : Reason.com: Pennsylvania taxpayers helped subsidize the filming of Creed II with $16 million in tax credits, despite the fact that the movie relocates its main characters (and perhaps the future of the long-running, iconic Rocky series) from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

It's an apt metaphor for film tax credit programs in general—which are sold as a way to create local jobs in the movie business or as a way to get a state's top tourist destinations featured on the big screen—but mostly end up benefitting Hollywood production companies.

1 comment:

Rebecca Meckler said...

While it’s great that Pennsylvania wants to entice the film industry and bring jobs, these movies seem to pull more money out of the state. States seem to compete with who can give the lowest tax incentives, allowing corporations to get more and more money. Since most people on movies shots are typically brought in from out of state these movies do not bring in the anticipated jobs. I wonder if these are ways to change the legislation that would keep the jobs in state, such as instead of 60% of production costs being in state to a certain percentage of local businesses being used. Though the business would still leave with the end of the the shoot, at least the company could get a temporary boost and be a connection for the movie company. That might encourage them to come back to the area. I’m curious to see what states, especially Pennsylvania, do to prevent the movie industry from taking advantage of tax breaks.