THE DECISION BY NETFLIX to divert much more production to Los Angeles, despite more generous and uncapped tax credits on offer in Canada and elsewhere outside California, has spooked some in the Canadian production sector.
They needn't worry, it would seem. FilmL.A., the official film office for Los Angeles, has released its 2016 feature film study and reports the top location for Hollywood movie shoots last year was Georgia, which gained from shooting Tyler Perry pics and Marvel tentpoles at Pinewood Studios Atlanta.
Next came the UK with 16 films, followed by Canada with 13 – its best showing in three years with tentpole shoots like Suicide Squad, Star Trek Beyond, Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse and having a combined budget value of $1.13 billion.
That's up from 11 projects shot in Canada in 2015 and 12 in 2014
Los Angeles trailed with 12 movies, five of which were big-budget animated features like Zootopia and Moana, and New York and Louisiana hosted six projects each.
FilmL.A., which coordinates permitting location shooting in Los Angeles, had even better news for Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Big budget Hollywood movies rely on visual effects, and much VFX work is done north of the border.
Take the $300 million Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice shoot. The main VFX location was Vancouver. Ditto for the $185 million Star Trek Beyond and $185 million Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them shoots, and VFX work on the $178 million X-Men: Apocalypse project.
The FilmL.A. report makes much of B.C., Ontario and Quebec offering separate VFX tax credits. In Vancouver, for example, for every $1 million in VFX work done, the provincial government will subsidize $530,000.
Netflix may see efficiencies from building and using its own studio space in Los Angeles given its massive content budget, and win favor with Hollywood talent looking to sleep in their own beds at night.
However, the latest FilmL.A. report underlines how once-dominant Hollywood continues to lose movie and TV work as the digital universe expands and film tax credits woo Los Angeles producers to Canada and elsewhere.
Montreal and rural Quebec played host to the $47 million Arrival shoot last year, but that's because Denis Villeneuve wanted to shoot back home after lensing Prisoners and Sicario stateside.
Not all a film's budget is dropped in Canada, however. The $175 million Suicide Squad shoot spent $80 million in Toronto, according to the FilmL.A. report, with secondary shooting in California.
And the $178 million X-Men Apocalypse shoot left $105 million in and around Montreal.
