‘It’s been desolate;’ Wilmington film industry struggles alongside nationwide trend

1 hour ago

Kamy Smelser,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) – From a decline in employment and production, the film industry in the U.S. is facing significant challenges.

This is also causing a ripple effect locally on sound stages in Wilmington like Dark Hourse Stages.

“I am doing my best to be optimistic,” said Kirk Englebright, president and CEO of Dark Horse Stages. “It’s been desolate throughout North Carolina, but you know this is something that’s going on nationwide.”

Englebright said they began to see a decrease in production volume soon after the Covid-19 pandemic when many productions looked outside U.S. soil for better filming incentives. Dark Horse Stages was no longer losing projects to neighboring states, but foreign countries as the U.S. doesn’t offer federal incentives, only state-level incentives.

“We were losing them to Australia, UK, Canada is a power-house right now for film and TV,” said Englebright.

Streaming competition, industry consolidation and changing consumer behavior are all also factors contributing to the slowdown.

“Now we’re seeing so many issues that are not related to the incentive that are impacting the industry. And again, they’re things that are really out of our control,” said Johnny Griffin, executive director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission.

Griffin said states like North Carolina are trying to lure productions with financial incentives.

“Some are tax-based, some are grants, some are credits. To the producer, they’re basically looking at how can they get, sort of a return on their investment? How can they get money back from the state?” Griffin said.

North Carolina offers a 25% rebate based on how much a producer spends. Englebright is one of many hoping to see a 20% rebate provided at the federal-level to bring more productions back to the U.S.

“That is going to help us put a fire under these productions to come back to the US because we got tons of infrastructure sitting here idle, just waiting,” Englebright said.

The biggest independence studio in Los Angeles recently defaulted and had to give property back to lenders. Englebright and Griffin said the best way to help their businesses is to go to the movie theaters.