Greater Columbus Film Commission Works to Expand the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit
Film Columbus is imploring Ohio legislators to increase The Ohio Motion Picture Tax from $40 million to $100 million in order to keep incentivizing major movies and TV shows to be filmed in Columbus.
“Increasing tax credits will allow us to better compete with states like Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia,” said John Daugherty, Executive Director of Film Columbus and Film Commissioner for the Columbus area. “The purpose of the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit is to create jobs and a positive economic impact and we want those jobs coming to Ohio and staying in Ohio. Even better, we want as many of those jobs as possible to come to Columbus.”
Georgia, the number one filming destination in the world, has no cap on its tax credit. As a result, the economic impact of the entertainment industry in Georgia was $9.5 billion in 2017, according to Daugherty.
“We’re not asking to eliminate the cap, we just want to be able to compete with other states and continue to grow our creative economy,” said Daugherty. “I know of at least four projects that were coming to Columbus, but were re-routed to Georgia because we didn’t have any more tax credits available for them.”
Daugherty believes that investment in a tax credit is good business for Ohio. Several economic impact studies from around the state have all come to the same conclusion: for every $1 spent on filming, the industry returns approximately $1.90 to the local economy. If the Columbus area could host three to four films a year and a TV or web series, it would create approximately 300 full-time jobs year-round.
Columbus has already had success in attracting movies to film here. In the last couple of years, Columbus hosted the filming of “I Am Wrath” and “478” – combined, they created 834 jobs for Ohioans. The estimated amount of money spent in Ohio from those films totaled $16.6 million in the Central Ohio area.
Other recent projects which filmed in Central Ohio include “Country Christmas Album” which played on ION Television during the 2018 Christmas season, “Beastmode” by Columbus resident Chris Freeman, “Eascape Plan 3” starring Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista, and multiple television shows.
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