Cross-Border State Rivalries Drive Up Size of Production Subsidies
Cross-border rivalries are driving up the subsidies states offer as they vie to attract Hollywood projects, with more than $25 billion already sunk into such offers, The New York Times reported.
The latest state to step into the ring is Oklahoma, which dangled enough cash to shift Taylor Sheridan’s Sylvester Stallone-as-mob-boss-in-a-strange-land series from its conception location of Kansas City to a new realm, where it became “Tulsa King.”
The knockout punch for “Tulsa King” was a $14.1 million rebate for the Season 1 episodes filmed in Oklahoma City, The Times reported.
Oklahoma also dropped more than $4 million to draw Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and $12.8 million for FX’s cult comedy hit “Reservation Dogs.”
Another project getting an infusion from the Sooner State — this summer’s highly anticipated “Twisters,” which has 1.3 million square feet of production space in Oklahoma City’s former convention center. It follows in the footsteps of the original “Twister,” which was also shot in Oklahoma.
“The only way that I lose is if we don’t have enough money to offer,” Rachel Cannon, the founder of Prairie Surf Studios in Oklahoma City, where “Tulsa King” was filmed, told The Times.
Tulsa, Oklahoma is also the filming location for “Reservation Dogs” creator Sterlin Harjo’s new FX pilot “The Sensitive Kind,” starring Ethan Hawke.
Oklahoma’s pot grew to about $30 million, pushing neighboring Texas to ramp up its efforts to draw productions by sweetening its incentive program’s funding to $200 million for the next two years, up from $45 million.
Texas also produced a video featuring Texas-bred stars like Matthew McConaughy, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Owen Wilson and Glen Powell urging residents to support more funding for television and film productions.
Oklahoma is now aiming to increase its incentives again, to $80 million, mirroring the inflation seen as other states battle for productions, even though some studies say such subsidies have a poor return on investment.
New York, for example, recently expanded its film incentive program to $700 million a year from $420 million as neighbor New Jersey, which ressurected its incentive program in 2020 after mothballing it a few years earlier, aims to draw a new Netflix studio to a dormant army base.
In total, 38 states have programs that aim to draw film, television and streaming productions, The Times said, citing the Motion Picture Association — including one in Missouri, which was restarted after the state lost out on the Netflix series “Ozark,” along with “Tulsa King.”
Ironically, the second season won’t see Stallone returning to Oklahoma City for filming. The production has moved to Atlanta, where it can take advantage of Georgia’s uncapped tax incentive program.
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