Hawaii's beautiful landscape and stable climate have lured filmmakers here for decades. Local businesses and vendors are the biggest supporters of the film industry. What kinds of films?

Monster films such as all five “Jurassic” films, two “King Kong” films, two “Godzilla” films. War films such as “Pearl Harbor,” “Tropic Thunder,” “Battleship” and “Windtalkers”. Romantic comedies such as “6 Days, 7 Nights,” “50 First Dates,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates” and most recently, Adam Sandler's Netflix Film “The Wrong Missy”. Action films such as “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “The Rundown”. Comedies such as “Jumanji”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Snatched”. Today, we have two FULL-TIME CBS TV shows, “Hawai‘i Five-O” and “Magnum P.I.” Much of that is due to Hawai'i’s film tax credit. Local businesses are the biggest supporters of Hawai'i's film industry, and they create thousands of jobs.

These films have QUADRUPLED Hawai’i’s film revenue - Hawai'i's film industry has grown from a $100 Million industry to a nearly $500 Million industry, with 2018 being our biggest to date. Film tax incentives are necessary to remain competitive as a film location. This past January, a $35 Million cap was imposed on the film tax credit. Other cities that have capped their film tax incentives have seen a huge fall off of work. We have strong reason to believe the same would happen to Hawai‘i. Isolated in the Pacific Ocean, we are already difficult enough to get to, and we don’t need additional reasons for large production teams to travel elsewhere. Our biggest competitor is Australia which still enjoys an uncapped film industry.

TOTAL ESTIMATED PRODUCTION SPENDING IN HAWAII:

2016 - 2018 = $1,042,000,000

2016 = $245M

2017 = $320M

2018 = $477M

TOTAL ESTIMATED JOBS PER YEAR: 3,200. Most recently in 2018 alone, it created 4,200 jobs!

TOTAL ESTIMATED TAXES GENERATED: $88,000,000 over the 3 years.

This week, the Hawai‘i State legislature will be conferring on Senate Bills 33 and 365 to determine whether to lift or raise the $35 Million cap. We have enjoyed a vibrant film industry, and we encourage our lawmakers to keep the films coming by reinstating the tax credit program the way it was last year!

Here are some points to consider:

The film industry is a clean and green industry. It helps to improve the communities by fixing structures, parks, and roads. Upgrades that the State and taxpayers don’t have to pay for.

It provides good-paying jobs to THOUSANDS of workers and businesses in the industry. Those businesses are able to hire more workers as the industry grows. HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of film dollars infuse our economy for over a year before a single rebate is paid out.

We benefit from BILLIONS of dollars in marketing to the State and the Visitor Industry when a film or TV series is shown around the world.

We encourage STATEWIDE FILMING by adding additional incentives for filming on the neighbor islands.

We are grateful for the support our legislators have given our industry, and we ask for their continued support in keeping jobs and film work here.

Contact your State Legislator to tell them MAHALO and ask for their continued support of our industry!

Please visit www.SaveHawaiiFilm.com for more information and upload your happy, film stories #savehawaiifilm. ALOHA!