The beleaguered U.S. film and TV industry, which has seen significant dollars leave for foreign countries, local production plummet and thousands of jobs vanish, may have some relief on the way.
It comes in the form of proposed legislation that has the rare support of lawmakers across the political spectrum. Indeed, President Donald Trump and the actors union SAG-AFTRA have been equally vocal in throwing their weight behind the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, which aims to create a significant tax incentive to bring Hollywood back home.
The bill was introduced in Congress in late September and is now with the House Ways and Means Committee. Given the bipartisan support, it is likely to have a relative glide path on Capitol Hill.
“Both parties represent people who work on sets, run catering companies and own hotels,” said Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), who co-wrote the bill. “Co-sponsors come from California, Georgia, New York, Ohio and Tennessee, and every one of us has heard the same thing at home: The work is going overseas.”
For film and TV creatives and craftspeople, the bill can’t land on the White House’s Resolute Desk a moment too soon.
“Whatever you think about the current administration, at least Trump, if he puts his weight behind this, could actually make this really move quickly, which is what we need,” said Carolina Groppa, an Emmy-nominated producer who also hosts a podcast, “Angle on Producers,” about the industry. “The patient’s been on the gurney for a long time, collectively across the United States.”
Film and TV production has indeed been fleeing Los Angeles for years— and often leaving the U.S. entirely. Other countries, from Ireland and Canada to Serbia and Colombia, have introduced huge tax incentives that have enticed producers to move projects to wherever is best for the bottom line. According to a recent report from EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics, the share of production spending for studio films with primarily U.S.-based projects declined since the turn of the century from 74 percent to 42 percent; for TV, it fell from 94 percent to 64 percent.
That trend accelerated following the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes, which were themselves triggered in part by industry contraction following the pandemic.
“You could just feel the town change,” said Elsbeth Mumm, a set decorator based in Los Angeles. “Shows were being canceled, movies were getting pushed, scripts were just disappearing, things that had gotten green-lit were just stopped.”
The people who have been hurt most are the middle class of the entertainment industry: the writers, production staff and craftspeople who often live project to project. When filmmaking fled overseas, many of their lives changed.
“People are losing houses,” Mumm said. “People have lost their health care. People have lost their retirement.”
The federal program would give certain film and TV productions a 20 percent tax rebate. To qualify, they would have to cost over $1 million, with at least 75 percent of the principal photography days occurring domestically.
The bill would allow the federal rebate to be stacked on top of existing state incentives.
“If what is in the bill goes through and is executed as promised, it will be a massive game changer,” said Patrick Meaney, an independent film director. “I think people are almost underrating it or not really processing it because it came out of nowhere and seems too good to be true.”
The tax incentive structure is somewhat similar to a smaller plan in effect in California, which last year was significantly broadened to include up to $750 million in credits annually. Many in Hollywood feel the program’s expansion has been a success.
The outlook is hopeful “for the first time in a long time,” said Keith Raskin, a veteran producer currently working on a crime comedy, “Sunset P.I.,” which is set to premiere on NBC in 2027. He’s filming in Los Angeles thanks to the state tax rebate program. “When I make phone calls to crew members to hire them, they cry because it means that they can make a payment on their house or they can keep their insurance for another year.”
If the federal rebate passes, it would mean “we’re finally a player in the world market,” Raskin added.
One big difference from the California credit: The federal version is uncapped.
Despite its bipartisan support, some critics argue that the tax incentives would first and foremost benefit the richest players in the system — massive entities like Paramount Skydance and the star actors and directors who are their top moneymakers.
“Do we really need kickbacks to corporations to employ a whole labor force?” asked Andi Brittan, a veteran set decorator and union leader at the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 44. “Unfortunately, the truth is, we have to work within the system, and working within the system means supporting these kinds of tax incentives.”
Other detractors point to past economic reports showing that these kinds of tax subsidies provide little to no quantifiable value. For example, a 2023 report published by the state of New York found that from 2012 to 2022, the tax incentives didn’t generate as many jobs as would have been created in other industries.
Still, the report also noted there are probably indirect positive economic effects that are hard to quantify. That’s something many in the industry focus on.
“It’s not just the films,” Mumm said. “It’s the trickling out — the florists, the food stylists, all of this stuff outside of the industry that rely on this huge force purchasing from them.”
It may be too late to ever fully recover from years of being beat on production costs, and there’s still major concern about the impact of the Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Even so, the rank and file of the U.S. film industry are uttering words like “optimistic.”
“I feel a good amount of hope, and I’ll tell you why,” said Kevin Armento, a film and TV writer. “All those soundstages are still sitting there. They haven’t bulldozed them yet.”
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