2023-09-10 04:00:00
Located in the heart of the ‘Bible Belt’ (biblical belt, in Spanish, due to the presence of Protestant Christianity, fundamentally Baptist), the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, is a benchmark for audiovisual production and its State is considered as the third most important in the country behind New York and California.
And all this thanks to a law enacted in 2008 in which it offered (and offers) 20% of the tax credit on any production that spends more than $500,000, with an additional 10% if it includes the logo of the company in the credits. State. This peculiarity has turned Georgia into the new Hollywood, or Hollywood of the South, also known as ATLWOOD.
These incentives caused a total of 16 movie studios to announce plans to locate in Georgia and its surrounding areas, such as Marvel and Pinewood, since 2016. In addition, AMC set up its studios to film The Walking Dead, where each episode cost between 3.5 and 4 million dollars, while in California the costs rose to 20 million dollars.
As the main film houses settled in Georgia, the State is getting closer to New York and California, whose industries produce profits of 8,000 to 10,000 dollars annually, so Atlanta, Georgia and its surroundings seek to attract more producers by promoting to the state as a “non-metropolitan” area, with communities and industries.
In 2017, 320 film and television productions were made, leaving an economic impact of 7 billion
And the passage of years has ended up proving this law right, since in 2017, eight years following it was put on stage, it was the setting for 320 film, television, , music and video productions, leaving an economic impact of 7 billion dollars. According to the latest report from the Georgia Arts Council, 92,000 people work in the Georgia film industry.
In 2018, 455 productions were filmed. Some of them were well-known blockbuster films such as Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider Man or Black Panther, among others; and series such as Stranger Things and The Walking Dead, Ozark, 24 and The Vampire Diaries.
Georgia’s creative economy not only contributes to the State’s bottom line, it also attracts millions of tourists each year, contributes significantly to the quality of life and vitality of each community, and represents the majority of the country’s rich heritage. and cultural identity of Georgia.
Trademark
Former entertainment industry executive Marvis Tyrone Scott is the trademark owner with all rights reserved for the ATLWOOD name and likeness. “The idea for ATLWOOD came regarding when I watched Atlanta evolve from ‘The Motown of the South’ during my days with LaFace Records, Jack the Rapper Convention, ASCAP, Sesac and BMI to ‘HotLanta’, riding the wave of immense superstar popularity. like Ted Turner (founder of TBS/TNT Networks), Dale Murphy (Atlanta Braves), Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta Hawks) and Deion Sanders (Atlanta Falcons),” he recalls.
“So it was only natural that Atlanta would get what was coming to it, especially given the fact that since 2012 the Atlanta film industry has grossed over $10 billion through reality shows, movies, game shows, drama series, comedies and other entertainment vehicles,” he says.
Boycott of Netflix, Disney…
The state of Georgia passed a law in 2019 banning abortion following around six weeks of pregnancy. This caused not only people to take to the streets, but production companies such as AMC, Networks, Netflix, Disney and Warner (HBO’s parent company) announced their boycott once morest Georgia.
Along these lines, the executive president of The Walt Disney Company, Bog Iger, declared in 2019 that it would be “very difficult” to continue filming projects in Georgia if, finally, the new anti-abortion law comes into force in this American state. “I think a lot of people who work with us won’t want to work there. We’ll have to address their demands regarding the situation,” Iger said.
This reasoning was also shared by Netflix, which did not hesitate to point out that they have “many workers in productions in this state, whose rights, along with those of millions of other women, will be severely restricted if this law goes forward,” explained Ted Sarandos. in an interview with Variety.
The producers’ threats never came to pass. Anti-abortion groups sued and a district court judge granted an injunction and eventually vacated it, ruling in July 2020 that it was unconstitutional. As a consequence of this, many companies decided to cover the travel costs of employees who must travel due to abortion. On November 23, 2022, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the abortion ban following six weeks.
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