Feature Film Study 2014

Feature Film Study 2014 - from the study:

FILMING LOCATIONS 

While Southern California and Hollywood are considered by many as the traditional home of moviemaking, the film industry is without a doubt a worldwide enterprise. Today, feature films produced by US companies are filmed throughout the globe. For many films, principal photography can--and often does--span more than one location. Accordingly, FilmL.A. worked to identify both primary production locations and secondary production locations for studied films. 

In the end, our research determined that nearly 30 different US states and foreign countries were used as primary production locations among this study’s 106 films. 

From a national perspective, the US served as the primary production location for 64 percent (69 count) of the 106 films. 

From a California perspective, the year saw a healthy reversal of the paltry 14 percent share from the prior, with 21 percent (22 count) of the films produced primarily within the state. In 2014, the home of Hollywood decisively dethroned Louisiana’s “Hollywood South.” 

New York’s rise to second place in the 2014 rankings is extremely impressive. The four films that primarily shot there among the 2013 releases didn’t even rank the Empire State in the top five locations in last year’s report, when the state tied with North Carolina for seventh place. Canada (as a whole) hosted three fewer films, tying it with the UK for third place with each location hosting 12 movies (within Canada, British Columbia hosted 8 films, Ontario 2, Quebec 1, Manitoba 1). Rounding out the top five locations was the State of Georgia, which hosted 10 films compared to 9 the year before. Louisiana’s plunge from number one in total project count (18 films in 2013, 5 films in 2014) to sixth place cedes ground to southern rival Georgia (9 films in 2013, 10 films in 2014). Louisiana state officials are contemplating capping their film incentive, but the $200 million cap under consideration is unlikely to hamper the state’s attraction of big-budget films. 

Many high-profile films of 2015 were filmed in Louisiana, including Jurassic World, Fantastic Four and Terminator Genisys. These will show up in future FilmL.A. feature studies. 

What seems clear is that while the individual rank of the top five or six production centers may fluctuate, the list of those centers is unlikely to change from year to year.