Question of the Day - 25 June 2023

[Editor's Note: This answer is penned by David McKee.]

Actor Mark Wahlberg, who's become an unabashed Vegas booster and celebrity about town since moving here with his family a couple of years ago, can try to bring Hollywood to Vegas, but it’s not very likely, especially as long as Nevada political leaders refuse to give anything to get something (i.e., movie production).

“Run-away productions” leave Hollywood most often when there's a financial incentive to do so, such as the weakness of the Canadian dollar, which turned Vancouver into a second Tinseltown. 

Regarding financial incentives, we can forget about SB 496, which proposed to offer “transferable tax credits” to productions that employed either “the Las Vegas Media Campus Project or the Summerlin Production Studios Project.” Use of 50% local crew talent would also be required. It would set up a Board for Nevada Film, Media & Related Technology, too. SB 496 was sent to committee on May 31 and was never heard from again.

Judging by some of the online comments (“If they can't fully finance any project, let them stay in California,” huffed one voter), Nevadans haven’t twigged to the fact that the state has to do something of monetary value to incentivize film production. If not, it’s simply cutting off its nose to spite its face — and two more years will be lost before the legislature revisits the issue, assuming it ever does.

Also, California has infrastructure — think of all those studios and effects houses — and topographical variety that southern Nevada badly lacks.

Your allusion to a studio project in Summerlin illustrates the problem rather well. There’s precious little logistical support in Las Vegas for significant film production. Los Angeles has well over a century of it. That film industry didn’t grow overnight, so if Las Vegas were to become a second dream factory, it’s not going to happen in Wahlberg’s lifetime, even if all the relocation it would entail started tomorrow.

While classic films like Ocean’s 11 and Charley Varrick relied heavily on Nevada locations, the average TV series or movie needs Hollywood infrastructure. After all, how many times in “CSI” did Las Vegas bear a suspicious resemblance to suburban Burbank?

The Disney angle is interesting, given the corporation’s stated aversion to gambling. On the plus side, Disney is the 800-pound gorilla that sits where it wishes. If it were to set up a production facility in southern Nevada, that might generate some needed critical mass, as occurred when the Hallmark Channel invested in a British Columbia studio.

But the Disney prospect seems ephemeral, amounting to some word of mouth from Nevada resident and Disney star Jeremy Renner and a possible local studio developer. The potential site would be the proposed Las Vegas Media Campus, a 35-acre mixed-use development project that includes 800,000 square feet of film and television production studios, emphasis on proposed. If built, it would be located prospectively at UNLV Tech Park in the southwest valley on Sunset Road near Durango Drive, near IKEA.

As for the Summerlin Studio, in which Sony Pictures would be a partner, it’s targeted for an I-215 Beltway location currently occupied by an R.C. Willey store. But Sony’s participation is contingent on SB 496’s passage, so forget that, at least for the new few years. It’s $1 billion of investment lost because the state wouldn’t pony up $190 million in tax credits and would have entailed five soundstages, plus other production facilities.

Economic impact from film production in Nevada has steadily declined from 2011, when it peaked at $95.5 million, generated by 500 productions of all shapes and sizes. In 2021, it was $77.5 million from 429 productions and last year, the Silver State eked out $72 million from 370 productions. Compare that to $885.5 million in economic impact to filmmaker-friendly New Mexico (where the TV show “Las Vegas” was filmed, irony of cruel ironies).

Contrary to popular misconception, as partially expressed in this question, California does do its part to engender film production within the Golden State. It offers quite a variety of incentives, which include a 25% credit to lure back run-away TV shows. It also incentivizes independent film production with 25% givebacks to movies budgeted between $1 million and $10 million. We could go on … but the point has been amply made. While Nevada pouts on the sidelines, other states are far outstripping it as movie meccas, a state of affairs that seems unlikely to change anytime soon, Wahlberg or no Wahlberg.