Filmmakers spent $258 million in NC last year

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Money continues to steadily flow into North Carolina thanks to multiple film productions.

Filmmakers spent more than $258 million on productions in North Carolina last year, the sixth highest year-end total since 2000, when the state started offering incentives to support the state’s film industry.

“North Carolina continues to attract great film, television, and streaming projects that bring good jobs to our state,” Governor Roy Cooper said. “Last year, these projects helped create 16,000 job opportunities, including 3,000 crew and talent positions for our state’s highly skilled production workforce.”

In 2022, 74 film, television, and streaming projects, had production-related activities in all eight of the state’s prosperity zones, including previously announced N.C. Film and Entertainment Grant awardees:

TV/streaming series

• “George and Tammy”
• “Welcome to Flatch”
• “Hightown”
• “The Summer I Turned Pretty

Studio feature-length films

• “Untitled Please Don’t Destroy Project”
• “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat”

Independent feature-length films

• “Boys of Summer”
• “The Other Zoey”
• “Providence”
• “ABG and Her Monster”
• “Site”
• “Eric LaRue”
• “Mother Couch”

Made-for-TV/streaming movies

• “Heaven Sent” (filmed as “Second Time Around”)
• “To Her, With Love.”

Latest productions include:

• “A Biltmore Christmas” which follows a young writer who is researching a holiday movie that was previously filmed at the Biltmore Estate and then gets transported back in time. Approved for a grant up to $1,087,500, the project completed filming in January and is scheduled to be part of the Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” later this year.
• The recently wrapped made-for-TV/streaming feature “Zoey 102” (filmed as “Electric Love”) filmed in the greater Wilmington area about a group of high school friends who reunite for a friend’s wedding. The project is approved for a film grant of up to $3.5 million.
• “A Bigger Slice of Sky” is a made-for-TV/streaming feature that is currently filming in and around southeastern North Carolina. The project is a about a struggling musician who moves back to her childhood home and discovers a recording from her deceased father confessing to a crime. The project is eligible for a grant rebate of $375,000.
• A crime drama set in the mountains of North Carolina and will begin filming in early Spring in the greater Charlotte area, “Blue Ridge” features a modern-Western hero in an Appalachian town that time, and justice, have forgotten. This series will be distributed by Imagicomm Entertainment and has been approved for a film grant up to $1,582,473.
• “Summer Camp” is an independent feature that will be filming in western North Carolina later this spring. The film follows three childhood friends who spent every summer at a sleep away camp and decide to seize the opportunity to return for a camp reunion. The production is approved for a grant rebate of up to $2,937,500.

“Following a successful year, it’s great to have multiple projects already making an impact in the state in 2023,” added Guy Gaster, director of the North Carolina Film Office. “It’s no longer a secret that our state is wide open for filming, and we look forward to continuing to build off our successes in 2021 and 2022.”