Keeping the film industry in the Bay State

FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com
February 9, 2011

BOSTON – Massachusetts has recently been a hot spot for movie makers and state officials are hoping to keep it that way.

Hit movies like “The Fighter”, “Company Men” and “The Town” were shot in our backyard in the past year or so.

Now there is a push to keep the film industry coming back, with representatives from the state heading to Los Angeles trying to drum up more business.

“Whenever you create an industry you’re bringing jobs into the Commonwealth,” said Joe Maella, president of the Mass. Production Coalition. “You’re gonna get a net benefit that’s gonna be realized in years to come. And yes of course there are going to be big projects that are gonna have big star salaries but that comes with the project and those projects generate a tremendous economic boom to the local community.”

Columbia Pictures is expected to start filming a movie starring Kevin James as a music teacher this year in Quincy.

Officials say film productions in Massachusetts have generated $36.3 million in new tax revenues and created 1,683 jobs since the film tax-break laws went into effect in 2006. The state has handed out $260.3 million in tax credits.

Do the tax credits we give to these companies really pay off for us in the long run? How many jobs do these films create? We spoke to Maiella to find out.

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