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North Carolina has been a prime film and TV location over the past quarter-century, but its share of the cinematic pie has shrunk recently as 28 other states offered better credits.
“We see it as a perfect opportunity to create jobs immediately without any true dollar investment,” Chris Cooney, president and chief operating officer of the EUE/Screen Gems studios in Wilmington, said after the signing.
While direct film industry spending in the state reached $161 million in 2007, according to the North Carolina Film Office, it fell to $91 million in 2008 and may drop below $50 million this year.
Most recently, Georgia scooped up production for a new Miley Cyrus movie, “The Last Song,” based on a script by New Bern author Nicholas Sparks and being distributed by The Walt Disney Co.
Perdue had started traveling to Wilmington in April to announce the $17 million movie would be filmed in North Carolina when officials in Georgia, which offers a credit of up to 30 percent, stepped in.
“The money and the bottom line are richer for Disney,” Perdue said. “This is a business. They go where the money is.”
The film industry employs more than 2,500 workers statewide, and the credit has been used by 34 productions in 28 counties since taking effect in 2006, generating $163 million in direct expenses, Perdue administration officials said.
An outside study commissioned by the state film office and film industry found the 15 percent credit has generated $1.30 in additional tax revenues for every $1 credit, but that the 25 percent credit would not generate a positive return at first.
But credit supporters argued successfully to the Legislature that even fewer productions would be filmed in North Carolina without the change.
Studios will start putting North Carolina back in their budget models again when considering where to film and the higher credit should help the state’s film industry rebound in 2010, said Aaron Syrett, director of the North Carolina Film Office.
Despite North Carolina’s recent production slide, a number of recent high-profile movies still used the state as a set, including “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Leatherheads,” and “The Secret Life of Bees.” The CW Network’s “One Tree Hill” is now filming its seventh season in Wilmington.
Also Thursday, Perdue signed without fanfare a bill that would allow 99 of the state’s 100 counties seek a quarter-cent or half-cent increase in the sales tax if voters in a country agree in a referendum.
The new proceeds would be earmarked for public transportation such as buses, van pools or light rail systems. The remaining county, Mecklenburg, already has an additional half-cent in place for public transit.
Perdue has now signed into law 59 of the 108 bills left on her desk at the close of the General Assembly session two weeks ago, according to Gerry Cohen, the Legislature’s bill drafting division director. Other bills signed into law Wednesday but not released until Thursday:
— require people who set off fireworks at public shows to receive minimum pyrotechnics training and get a permit from the state. The bill was in response to a July 4 explosion when fireworks being unloaded from a truck on Ocracoke Island exploded, killing four people from Wayne County.
— allow magistrates to carry their concealed weapons while they are in a county courthouse to carry out their official duties as long as they have a concealed weapon permit.
— prevent the Division of Motor Vehicles from renewing endorsements on drivers licenses that would allow a registered sex offender to drive a school bus.
Perdue has until Sept. 10 to sign or veto the remaining bills. Those not considered by then automatically become law.
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