Utah film industry hopeful of rebound

Film industry spending in Utah plummeted $44 million since 2008, but officials hope new film-incentives legislation can help bring in multimillion-dollar projects.

For the 2009 fiscal year, the film industry had a direct economic impact of $12 million from 13 films produced in Utah, but Utah Film Commission director Marshall Moore said SB14 — a bill that offers incentives to projects with a budget of more than $5 million — could help the industry rebound.

"Besides the economic impact, these movies will bring exposure to the state," Moore said Thursday at the commission's summer industry luncheon in Salt Lake City. "We had our busiest year just one year ago, with 28 films and $56 million in (spending) revenue. But between the (proposed) 'John Carter of Mars' and 'High School Musical 4' films, we will triple the entire revenue from our best year."

Film officials expect that the 'John Carter of Mars' film — which features an American Civil War veteran transported to Mars, forced to recruit help and rescue a humanoid Martian princess — will result in $27 million in in-state spending. Moore said the production will provide nearly 400 Utah jobs and possible locations include Big Water, Moab and Wendover.

"I was excited that one of these stories I read as a youth would be made into a movie," Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert said. "We've been going through a little bit of a slump in the film industry, but now we're focused on the economy as our No. 1 issue. If you invest a dollar, you'll get $2 to $3 back."

And that's exactly what film officials plan to do. Moore said the incentive legislation, passed in this year's general session, already has encouraged other companies to consider Utah as a filming location, saying that incentives are the primary issue to producers.

"We're competing with a lot of other states and need to be positioned so producers look to Utah first," said Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi and co-sponsor of the legislation. "We have natural resources here, a great support network, and we're a right-to-work state, which is much more commercial and so filmmakers don't have to deal with a union crew."

Big-budget productions can get up to 20 percent in tax credits for their in-state spending. The legislation also offers tax rebates for smaller productions, with a $500,000 incentive cap, and other incentives for productions spending less than $1 million.

Low-budget producer Holly Tuckett said it's a step in the right direction but that more needs to be done to help the "little people."