In a year when cutbacks, the threat of strikes and fewer new projects slowed down film and TV production, New York is still faring better than the rest of the country.
Statewide production levels are around 75% of what they were in 2022, based on a comparison of all scripted TV and film projects with estimated $10 million-plus budgets that shot in the first seven months of each year. Yet, “this is significantly better than the rest of the U.S., which is at around 60% of 2022 levels,” says Alexander LoVerde, co-founder and CEO of industry intelligence platform ProdPro. “These figures highlight New York’s relative resilience in a challenging overall market.”
A big reason is the state’s improved incentive program. Last year, tax credits for qualified expenses jumped from 25% to 30% with an additional 10% in many upstate counties. Certain above-the-line wages were included, funding increased from $420 million a year to $700 million and the program was extended through 2034.
But even after COVID, strikes and hiatuses, the industry is riding many ups and downs. The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment (MOME) says the number of city permits for public property shoots in April 2024 neared the pre-pandemic levels of April 2019 (827 vs. 900). Yet the latest permit figures for August show another downturn, dropping 41% from what they were five years ago (616 vs. 1,050).
Part of the problem is that more projects are heading overseas due to labor uncertainty. That’s the situation writer-director-producer Oren Moverman is facing. Though he’s made 14 projects in New York, he had to turn to Germany, Japan and the U.K. to fund three new ones and film outside the U.S. “Those areas are potentially the easiest for financing,” he says.
But there are bigger forces at play. “While some projects resumed quickly, new series orders have dropped significantly compared to the peak in 2021-2022,” says LoVerde. “Streamers and networks are cutting back on content, driven by Wall Street’s shift from focusing on subscriber growth to profitability. From 2015 to 2019, content spending surged as streamers built their audiences, but the 2020 COVID shutdown disrupted that trend. Demand for original content spiked again in 2021 with new streaming entrants, but this began to shift in 2022 after Netflix’s Q2 earnings missed subscriber targets, prompting investors to prioritize profitability.
“By early 2023, production volumes had already declined by double digits, and the strikes accelerated the pullback in content spending,” he adds. “A wave of cancellations and stricter greenlighting processes have become the norm in 2024.”
Yet more New York City soundstages are coming. Bungalow Projects and Bain Capital Real Estate are planning new studios in the East Williamsburg and Red Hook sections of Brooklyn, which will break ground in the first half of 2025 for a planned opening in the second quarter of 2027.
Robert De Niro’s Wildflower Studios opened in September. A series episode has filmed there, and interested parties are touring the facility to potentially lease its soundstages. “Now that the last strike threat has passed we’ll see production ramp up, but there are a lot of forces that have to begin moving,” says Wildflower Studios managing partner Adam Gordon.
Wildflower’s neighbor on the Queens waterfront is Borden Studios, which is aiming for a year-end debut. Innovo Property Group principal Graham Stephens says the developer is putting finishing touches on the facility. “The new soundstages are part of the investment NYC is putting into this industry,” says MOME commissioner Pat Kaufman. “We already know filmmakers want to film here. Now, for [many] reasons — including the expanded state tax credit, that we are making filming easier and that we are increasing the workforce — we are hopeful that production will continue to increase and fill these soundstages.”
But talking with local filmmakers and industry heads reveals a more sobering picture this year. “The capability and infrastructure of New York’s production industry remains as good as it’s ever been, [but] it’s turned a bit from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market,” says Kaufman Astoria Studios president Hal Rosenbluth. “You’ve got one or two shows shopping every stage in the tri-state area, whereas before, we were all full. Where that dynamic is going to end up as we enter a new year, I honestly don’t know.”
Doug Steiner, owner of Steiner Studios, which is operating at just over 80% capacity, says, “Out of the writers’ strike, we booked up really fast, and we’re just starting to tail off of that burst of pent-up demand. It’s a bit slow in New York. The series that we’re getting have fewer episodes and there are a lot more limited series, which is a big change.”
He’s opening up his 30 Brooklyn stages to keep things busy. “We’re pretty nimble on filling our space, whether it’s commercials, music videos or concert rehearsals. [But] I think there’s going to be more battling between New York and New Jersey, which is getting a lot of location work now.”
Lionsgate Studios Yonkers owner Robert Halmi says, “There have been roughly 1,500 productions ordered since the start of the year, [yet] a lot of them were sent to the U.K., Canada and other places because of the threat of strikes, so we’ve had very few new shows looking for space in the first six months of the year. But after that, it’s picked up a lot.”
Still, he says, many shows are considering a later start due to Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks. “We’re not back to where we were before the strikes, but it’s getting better every week,” he says.
Especially for producers looking for a good deal. “There’s more pricing pressure if stages at Steiner or Kaufman or Silvercup or the new Wildflower are all available,” says one facility head.
“The Morning Show,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston
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Post New York Alliance chair Yana Collins Lehman says that after two busy years, “the bottom dropped out” of New York post and VFX work in January due to the threat of IATSE and Teamsters strikes. She says it led to furloughs, layoffs and consolidation statewide. Her group lobbied to pass post-production tax incentives in 2010 that recently rose to 30% in the city and 35% in the state, and they’re lobbying for more changes to the credits, which she expects will go into effect “in the coming year.”
And New York is offering lots of affordable options for productions. Mechanism Digital president Lucien Harriot says artificial intelligence “is speeding up our process and lowering the cost of entry, so there’s a lot of independent film in New York that we get to work on.”
Given the higher tax credits, one recent Netflix series’ producer found that it was cheaper to house stars and crew upstate than have them commute from home in the city. Saks Picture Co. producer Alex Saks did this on her 2002 low-budget, non-union horror thriller “Baby Ruby,” but also appreciated the concierge service MOME provided on her Jennifer Lawrence-led comedy “No Hard Feelings” in New York City. “At least half a dozen times, we had to change locations and pull permits to shoot within 24 hours,” she says. “Accommodations were made so that we could do that.”
That’s music to Kaufman’s ears. “We have terrific infrastructure that’s growing,” she says, citing Sunset Pier 94 Studios in Manhattan, the Sunnyside campus of East End Studios in Queens and several more facilities in the works. Combined with new tax credits, “[our] strategy [is] ‘if you build it, they will come.’”
