Just before Christmas 2024, the Government of British Columbia announced it would increase tax incentives for the film and television production industry to attract and encourage more productions in the province.
These represent some of the largest changes in incentives for Hollywood North, focused in the Metro Vancouver region, in about a decade.
The incentives are needed following a steep decline in the number of productions in BC for two consecutive years, resulting in far less local economic spending. Such expenditures are not only focused on local labour but also on production and logistical aspects such as construction, supplies, rentals, catering, accommodations, and transportation.
29% year-over-year drop in spending
This follows Creative BC’s July 2024 report that revealed that there was a 29% year-over-year drop in overall production spending by film and television projects in BC in 2023 — down from $3.3 billion by 511 projects in 2022 to $2.3 billion by 346 projects in 2023. This represents a two-year decrease from the all-time record of $3.74 billion across 499 projects in 2021, including $3.15 billion by 309 foreign productions and $593 million by 190 domestic productions.
Correspondingly, the number of jobs in BC supported by the film and television production industry fell from 37,000 in 2022 to 26,000 in 2023.
In particular, the spending by foreign productions — primarily those by Hollywood studios — dropped by at least 32% from $2.78 billion by 324 projects in 2022 to $1.88 billion by 209 projects in 2023. This includes the “productions with intent to do business in BC.”
Within the foreign productions segment, feature films spending went up from $172 million by 43 projects in 2022 to $407 million by 37 projects in 2023, but this is down from $453 million across 56 projects in 2021.
Ryan Reynolds’ “The Adam Project” for Netflix filmed at the Olympic Cauldron at the Vancouver Convention Centre in 2021. (Ryan Reynolds/Netflix)
The two types of foreign productions that represent the majority of the overall dip are television series and work by streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+), which brought far fewer projects to BC in 2023.
Television series, including traditional prime-time series by big United States networks, reached $452 million across 40 projects in 2023 — a drastic decrease from $1.06 billion by 85 projects in 2022 and $1.22 billion by 84 projects in 2021. Streaming platform productions reached $477 million by 31 projects in 2023, representing another major drop compared to $1.25 billion by 120 projects in 2022 and $1.24 billion by 107 projects in 2021.
Foreign live-action filming work has declined significantly, from $2.01 billion by 129 projects in 2021 to $1.66 billion by 111 projects in 2022 and further to $739 million across 67 projects in 2023. Additionally, foreign visual and special effects work for live-action productions reached $113 million across 28 projects in 2023 — down from $383 million by 110 projects in 2022 and $376 million by 94 projects in 2021.
These figures are based on the provincial government’s collected tax administration data for incentives.
Merry & Bright at Martini Town. (Martini Film Studios)
According to Creative BC, the decline in 2023 was due not only to the worldwide impacts of the prolonged strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which wiped out the Fall 2023 network television series lineup and are expected to have lasting impacts through 2024, but also to a global reduction in the number and scale of projects undertaken by foreign studios following the end of “Peak TV” — the third golden age of television, which spanned from the late 1990s to 2023.
In 2023, a total of 516 scripted television series aired or streamed in the United States, representing a 14% drop from 2022, which is only the second drop within at least 15 years and the biggest.
“Corporate restructuring” was also an attributed impact, according to Creative BC. For example, while Deadpool and Deadpool 2 were filmed in Vancouver, the third instalment, titled Deadpool & Wolverine, was filmed in the United Kingdom — a decision that followed The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and Disney’s more recent strategy of focusing its infrastructure and talent for Marvel Cinematic Universe productions in London’s studios.
Amid these global market changes, Creative BC notes a general industry “reset” driven by various trends in entertainment and content production. This shift requires production hubs worldwide to be more competitive in attracting and retaining a shrinking pool of production work.
BC is struggling to remain competitive
In November 2024, the provincial government sent a delegation to Los Angeles to meet with Hollywood studio decision-makers, gain insight into the industry’s current challenges and emerging trends, understand its needs, and explore ways to enhance BC’s competitiveness against other global production hubs.
Hollywood North, the film and television production industry of BC, based in Metro Vancouver, has long been regarded as North America’s third largest production hub after Los Angeles and New York City.
Over the past two decades, Metro Vancouver’s position has been increasingly eroded by the emergence of new production hubs in Georgia (Atlanta), Ontario (Toronto), Quebec (Montreal), and the United Kingdom (London). Toronto has attracted numerous new live-action film and television productions, while Montreal has become a global powerhouse for animation and post-production live-action visual and special effects.
Overall, these regions have leveraged competitive tax incentives and invested in new production facilities and infrastructure, such as major studios. With each major production they attract, their local talent gains more experience, further narrowing the talent gap once dominated by Los Angeles, New York City, and Vancouver.
And these jurisdictions have recently increased their tax incentives and further expanded their production facilities to grow their capacity to handle more major productions at any given time.
Exterior of a soundstage at Martini Film Studios’ existing facilities in Langley. (Martini Film Studios)
Georgia’s film industry’s stratospheric rise has been most notable, making it North America’s new third-largest production hub.
Annual film and television production spending in Georgia totalled only about US$100 million (C$140 million) in the late 2000s, but this figure quickly climbed to US$4.1 billion (C$5.9 billion) in 2023.
Georgia’s strategy pairs aggressively competitive tax incentives with a building boom of production facilities and infrastructure.
Over the same period, soundstage space in this southern US state grew from 45,000 sq ft in the late 2000s to three million sq ft in 2022. In 2025, following the opening of additional new and expanded studio campuses, Georgia will have seven million sq ft of soundstage space, surpassing New York as the state with the second-highest amount of soundstage space in the United States. Georgia’s production capacity, largely within the Atlanta area, now rivals Los Angeles, which currently has 7.3 million sq ft of soundstages.
Ontario’s industry experienced a similar recent decline as BC, with spending reaching $2.88 billion across 394 projects in 2021 and $3.15 billion across 419 projects in 2022 before dropping to $1.83 billion across 404 projects in 2023. This decline in Ontario was largely attributed to a sharp drop in foreign productions, falling from over $1.9 billion in both 2021 and 2022 to $890 million in 2023, with live-action work accounting for the overwhelming majority of Ontario’s foreign productions.
Additionally, Ontario is currently undergoing a building boom of soundstage space. An additional 1.6 million sq ft of soundstage space will reach completion over the next few years, primarily within Greater Toronto, which will increase Ontario’s total soundstage space from 3.85 million sq ft to 5.45 million sq ft.
In contrast, BC currently has 2.9 million sq ft of soundstage space, primarily situated in Burnaby and Vancouver. In 2025, 1.04 million sq ft of additional space across 50 soundstages will be added, growing soundstage space to nearly four million sq ft. BC is experiencing a building boom of such facilities after a shortage of soundstage spaces years earlier forced productions to look to other jurisdictions.
This includes the 2025 completion of Bridge Studios’ new additional Lake City Studios campus, located next to SkyTrain Lake City Way Station near the base of Burnaby Mountain. This campus, the largest production facility in Canada, will have 21 purpose-built soundstages. However, earlier in 2024, Bridge Studios cancelled their plans to build a new purpose-built campus in South Burnaby with 16 soundstages.
But construction on Martini Film Studios’ new purpose-built production campus in the Township of Langley, featuring 16 soundstages, has stalled due in part to a legal conflict with the municipal government’s decision to impose a community amenity contribution payment of nearly $40 million for the project.
Artistic rendering of Bridge Studios Lake City at 3131 Lake City Way, Burnaby. (CTA Architecture & Design/Bridge Studios)
Artistic rendering of Martini Film Studios’ major new film and television production studio campus at 216 Business Park in Langley Township. (Martini Film Studios)
BC’s industry also faces challenges in expanding purpose-built production facilities due to Metro Vancouver’s severe industrial land shortage, which has driven industrial land costs to some of the highest in North America. Additionally, the region’s housing affordability issues impact the retention and growth of local labour, while a growing hotel room shortage affects the accommodation of visiting crew and talent.
While BC and Ontario are currently experiencing an overall declining trend in the volume and value of work, the opposite can be said about Quebec’s industry, which is being propelled by foreign animation and post-production visual and special effects work.
In the 2022/2023 fiscal year, Quebec’s film and television production industry spending reached an all-time high of $3.22 billion, including $1.66 billion from the foreign work of animation and post-production visual and special effects. This specific type of foreign work component accounted for 52% of total production volume in the province, up from $1.43 billion in 2021/2022, $870 million in 2020/2021, $1.22 billion in 2019/2020, and $839 million in 2018/2019.
It is also worth noting that Ontario and Quebec traditionally have larger domestic industry segments than BC, with Toronto serving as the hub for English Canadian content and Montreal for Francophone content. In contrast, foreign productions make up over 80% of BC’s total production spending on average.
Following its notable experience as the production hub for the first season of HBO’s The Last Of Us, Alberta’s provincial government is now looking into making further inroads into growing its film and television production industry, competing with established industries like BC. The show’s first season generated over $182 million for Alberta’s GDP and supported about 1,500 jobs in the province. Filming for the second season in 2024 took place in Metro Vancouver and elsewhere in BC.
New BC tax incentives starting in 2025
Announced just before Christmas 2024, the Government of British Columbia will aggressively increase its film tax credits starting on January 1, 2025, competing with other jurisdictions.
BC’s Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC) for foreign projects will increase from 28% to 36% for productions with principal photography. Furthermore, major big-budget productions with a BC-made production cost of over $200 million will receive a 2% tax credit bonus.
As well, the provincial government has plans to restore the regional and distant location tax credits for local production companies with a brick-and-mortar presence outside of Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, and Whistler/Squamish.
“Our province is home to one of the busiest film and TV production centres in North America,” said BC Premier David Eby in a statement earlier this month.
“But film production in BC has taken a big hit over the last few years, responding to significant impacts from the pandemic, multiple labour disruptions and changes to industry practices. We’re boosting tax incentives — and our competitive advantage — to ensure that our province remains a destination of choice for filmmakers in Canada and around the world, employing skilled British Columbian crews.”
Aerial of Vancouver Film Studios. (Vancouver Film Studios)
Brenda Bailey, the BC Minister of Finance, added that these increased incentives “solidifies BC’s competitive advantage as one of the world’s top filming destinations and our commitment to strengthening our economy all across BC.”
According to the provincial government, during the 2023/2024 fiscal year, BC provided $909 million in film and television tax credits. This industry also typically accounts for about 1% of the provincial GDP.
Spencer Chandra Herbert, BC’s Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport, says that based on his participation in the provincial government’s November 2024 delegation to meet with Los Angeles studio executives, these improved incentives will effectively encourage more Hollywood productions to return to Metro Vancouver and other areas of BC.
“I was recently in Los Angeles and heard directly from studio executives about the significant production increases in BC that would flow from changes like these. These changes will help us land more top-tier projects, fuel economic and job growth, and showcase everything we love about BC to the world,” said the minister.
The tax incentive changes are expected to not only put more people to work but also make good use of Metro Vancouver’s existing and newly expanded soundstage capacity.
Historically, Hollywood has sent more productions north to Canada when the Canadian dollar hits a sustained multi-year low against the US dollar, as it is now. BC’s tax incentives will enhance the province’s competitiveness not only against jurisdictions outside Canada but also against Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
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