More than 70 film and television productions have wanted to shoot in Florida in recent years, but didn’t due to the lack of a statewide film production program.
According to trade association Film Florida, those productions would have used more than 220,000 hotel room nights; provided 110,000 cast and crew jobs; accounted for $1.3 billion in spending; and increased state and local tax revenues by millions of dollars.
But just because fewer productions are choosing to film in Florida doesn’t mean the Sunshine State has been absent from the silver (or small) screen – it just means another state has stepped in to the role of fake Florida.
Among the billions in lost business are 20 or so projects that were set in Florida, allowing other states to depict Florida to the world.
Those projects account for $500 million in lost business, or nearly half of the potential economic impact Florida has ceded to other states since the last state-backed film program lapsed. See more at Clay Today.
