Within weeks, a neighbor who works as an electrician signs on for a three-month job. The hardware store gets a standing lumber order. The diner down the street starts catering lunch for a crew of 200, and hotel rooms that usually sit empty in the off-season are booked solid.
That’s what happens when a production comes to a community. But in America, it’s happening less often, as more TV shows and movies pack up and film overseas.
Why it matters: Filming isn’t just about seeing your town on screen. It means paychecks for local workers and steady customers for small businesses, and right now, a growing share of that work is going to other countries.
The good news: A bipartisan bill in Congress, the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, would create the first national incentive for filming in the U.S., making it easier for productions to choose American towns over foreign countries.
Here’s what you need to know.
What Filming Means for Your Community
When a production comes to town, a big share of its budget stays local.
• Local jobs: On average, a major movie’s U.S. location shoot
hires more than 1,400 local workers and pays $11.7 million in local wages. A TV series location shoot hires more than 1,850, based on shoots worldwide. These are good jobs, too: in 2024, salaries for production jobs were
52% higher than the national average.
• Small business sales: The industry supports 162,000 U.S. businesses, and 93% of them are small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. Typically, 55% to 75% of a production’s behind-the-scenes spending goes to businesses outside the film industry. On
one mid-budget drama series in Illinois, about 1 in 6 of its behind-the-scenes dollars went to location fees and real estate, and about 1 in 7 went to travel and transportation.
• A ripple effect: Crew members spend their paychecks at local restaurants and shops. And the spending travels:
one North Texas production used vendors as far away as El Paso, more than 550 miles from Dallas.
Real Towns, Real Results
These three communities show what that looks like in practice:
• Senoia, Georgia (“The Walking Dead”): After Georgia launched its film incentive in 2008, this small town south of Atlanta became a regular filming location. Main Street went from
five businesses to fifty between 2007 and 2012, during a recession. AMC’s “The Walking Dead” later turned downtown into one of its sets, drawing fans from around the world and new businesses like a show-themed coffee shop.
• Okmulgee, Oklahoma (“Reservation Dogs”): FX’s series began filming in Okmulgee and Tulsa in 2020, and local Okmulgee businesses hit by the pandemic got
a big lift. A long-closed grocery store in nearby Terlton was even brought back to life, its shelves restocked for filming. Over three seasons, the show is estimated to have generated
nearly $50 million in local spending.
• Bitterroot Valley, Montana (“Yellowstone”): According to a
University of Montana study, season four alone brought more than $70 million in additional spending to the state and $25.3 million in income for Montana households. The production spent money on everything from lodging and rental cars to veterinary and animal services.
Why Fewer Shows Are Being Made Here
America used to be the go-to place to film. But the U.S. share of global film and TV production has fallen from about 65% to well under half today.
So where did it go? Overseas. At least 65 countries now offer national incentives to attract productions. Here at home, 39 states have their own programs, but without a national incentive, even the strongest state is competing against an entire country.
What’s next: If nothing changes, that share could keep falling, meaning fewer jobs for local crews and fewer customers for local businesses.
How the Federal Incentive Would Work
The bill is designed to bring that work back home. In short, it would:
• Offer a 20% tax credit on wages paid to people working on productions in the U.S.
• Add extra credit for filming in rural or disaster-affected communities.
• Work alongside state programs, not replace them, giving towns in every state a better shot at landing a production.
By the numbers: An economic study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association estimates a federal incentive could add $249.1 billion to the U.S. economy from 2027 to 2035 and support an average of 143,500 full-time-equivalent jobs each year.
The bottom line: The next production that hires your neighbors and fills your local shops could be filmed right down the street, as long as it stays in America. Take one minute to ask Congress to keep the cameras rolling.
