Friday, August 19, 2016

Biggest Welfare Queens Around Are Movie Conglomerates

Some fool shooting off his mouth:

“Every studio can get the work done cheaper now. All they have to do is outsource it to a job shop, and let the job shops bid on the work, and they’ll lowball each other to get [the work]. It is a low-margin business, because everybody is bidding against one another.” ...

"Sending work to Canada] makes good business sense; if you can get some chucklehead — in this case, the Canadian taxpayer — to cough up 50 cents on the dollar for you to do your movie up there, why not? It doesn’t make sense not to. The biggest welfare queens around are movie conglomerates. All they do is go where there’s free money. If you’re poor and getting a subsidy, you’re beneath contempt, but it’s perfectly OK if you’re a large corporation.” ...

Okay, so maybe the "fifty cents on the dollar" remark was a wee bit hyperbolic. The subsidies are moving around a bit, but you get the idea.

When you've got a nice tax credit, a good exchange rate, and a work force that doesn't have to be paid overtime because of favorable provincial labor regulations, large entertainment conglomerates, and the studios that suckle at their large full teats, stampede to your door.

I've had more than one entertainment potentate explain to me how the major studios now look at which geographical locations offer subsidies, and go where the Free Money is.

It's hard to blame them for it makes good business sense, but let's call this practice what it is: government welfare for the good folks we call entertainment companies.

3 comments:

attmay said...

How did it get so expensive for Hollywood studios to shoot in California?

Steve Hulett said...

Because for a long time (though not now), California had no subsidies. Movie companies go where the Free Money is. Now that Free Money is being handed out by Cali's government, bigger movies are coming back.

bean said...

The worst part is that Vancouver has built the local industry around tax credits , with little original, marketable IP. If the subsidies dry up and the studios leave (which happened right after 9/11 for a few years), all the local talent will be high and dry.

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