Birds of Prey, Warner Bros.’ upcoming Harley Quinn movie starring Margot Robbie, is among 19 films that that have been selected to received tax credits under California’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program 2.0.
The California Film Commission on Monday announced that the projects, which include 11 studio pics and eight independent features, have been approved conditionally for $52.2 million in tax credits. They are expected to generate an estimated $258.2 million in qualified expenditures (defined as wages to below-the-line workers and payments for equipment/vendors) and spend a combined 602 shoot days across the state. Based on data provided with each tax credit application, they will employ 869 cast, 2,357 crew and 23,000 extras (including stand-ins measured in man-days).
“It’s great to see so many tax credit projects bring production jobs and spending to regions across the state,” California Film Commission Tax Credit Program director Nancy Rae Stone said n a statement. “The out-of-zone filming provisions in Program 2.0 are working as intended to help spread the direct economic benefit.”
The Program 2.0 includes a five percent tax credit uplift for film and TV projects that perform original photography outside the traditional Los Angeles 30-Mile Zone.
Birds of Prey itself is projected to spend nearly $63 million in-state on qualified expenditures. Such projects with total budgets exceeding $75 million were ineligible for the state’s first-generation incentive program.
“We are excited to be awarded an incentive from the California Film & TV Tax Credit Program, which will allow us to produce Birds of Prey in the Golden State,” said Warner Bros. Pictures senior vp physical production Kelley Smith-Wait. “The project will have a large footprint and create hundreds of new jobs for women and men in our industry.”
Among the other 10 studio projects, six — Bunker, Covers, The Has Been, Flying Horse, The Hunt and Cry, Baby — plan to shoot outside the Los Angeles 30-Mile Studio Zone.
Among the eight indie pics selected for the tax credit round are another five projects — Black and Blue, Blackbird, Drunk Bus, Revenge and YesterNow — that plan to shoot outside the Zone.
California will double for New York and New Jersey in the Untitled Charles Randolph Project and for Europe in Bunker. At least two other projects — Bullet (originally set in Philadelphia) and Head (originally set in New Jersey) — will have their storylines revised to be set in California.
A total of 43 film projects applied for tax credits during the June 18-22 application period. The list is subject to change, as applicants may withdraw from the program and have their reservation of tax credits reassigned to one or more other projects currently on the wait list. The next application period for feature film tax credits will be held Oct. 15-19.
