The Netflix Albuquerque announcement begs a larger question: Has it cornered the production space, disrupting other studios and independents? The answer is sort of, but possibly only temporarily.ĪBQ was the biggest production facility in the state, which requires stages be used to take advantage of the full tax incentive. Did Netflix Just Disrupt New Mexico for Everyone Else? Today, desert warfare, arid foreign lands, genre period, military stories, and modern American stories are now set in the Southwest, where it’s easier and cheaper to make them. When “Breaking Bad” premiered in 2008, there was nothing that on television that looked like it. The growth of New Mexico production has also given Hollywood a new, obtainable, and affordable landscape in its filmmaking palette.
Already, the government allows exceptions on “distant hires” if they employ paid interns as additional production assistants. Meanwhile, the Albuqueque film office is working with Netflix to start a crew training program that will help locals partake in the upwards of 1,000 jobs Netflix plans to bring to the state every year. IndieWire spoke with multiple production managers and producers for this article, all of whom said that quality and depth of crew in New Mexico is strong, only leaving a production short on options when Albuquerque is especially busy. Those crew members’ salaries qualify for the rebate, in addition to saving money on housing and per diem allowances. While the tax incentive applies to local hires, the extremely film-friendly local and state offices are accommodating they make exceptions and concessions for out-of-state hires, on top of allowing 10 “distant hires.” Meanwhile, there are a lot of what producers calls “local, but” hires - i.e., crew from other production cities who have grown to like the change of pace of New Mexico living and have bought second homes around Albuquerque. The convenience of getting back-and-forth to Los Angeles can’t be underestimated, especially compared to its East Coast competition with its comparatively long flights and nightmare airports that are hard to reach. The airport is right outside a city that has remarkably little traffic, it’s a two hour flight to LAX, and there are lobbying efforts for a Burbank-to-ABQ direct flight in the works. Hollywood Has Grown Comfortable in New MexicoĪlbuquerque is convenient. To help Netflix purchase the facility, New Mexico ($10 million) and the city of Albuquerque ($4.5 million) will kick in monies in the form of Local Economic Development Act funding. Securing the top production facility in a state with a 25-30 percent tax incentive that extends to above-the-line talent (at $5 million cap) is an enormous step toward that goal. Having grown to produce $8 billion a year in Netflix Originals, the next step is building infrastructure that’s easier and more cost efficient. ABQ Studios ABQ Studiosįor three years, Netflix spent top dollar to attract top talent and IP, building a deep slate of original content that made it a must-own subscription service that didn’t depend on SVOD rights from other studios’ big movies and shows. Whereas math in the rest of Hollywood revolves around getting 25-35 percent back on below-the-line production costs (and above-the-line costs, in Georgia), Sarandos indicated that keeping talent and filmmakers close to their families and home was a Netflix core value. At the time, he stated Netflix would not be like other studios and chase tax incentives in New York, Atlanta, and other cities across the globe. How ‘Sing 2’ Made the Case for Netflix to Get Into Live Sports Netflix Does Care About Tax IncentivesĪ year-and-a-half ago, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos announced the company was building production infrastructure in Los Angeles - a city with a capped, lottery-based incentive program.
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