This past month we have been reaching out to a number of states that are heading towards bill selection for their upcoming 2027 Legislative Sessions. One film office replied, “We don’t have any plans to change our film legislation at this time to include infrastructure.” which, from what has been discussed in their state, clearly goes directly against their intentions to build up their local Film & Media industry that is seeing some success and in 2026 they tried to pass companion legislation to turn their film office into a “Film Commission” with new powers to directly engage with building up their state as a production hub. That legislation failed as it gave too much power to the state and interfered with securing independently owned private business and infrastructure growth. As we have heard before with questions about whether Film & Media counts as “infrastructure” and lack of knowledge about the current state of the industry, we replied with a response to put some perspective on the concerning situation with U.S. business growth and development in Film & Media or its lack thereof.
Our Letter
“As proposed before, our Babs Do Studios development, for example, could be built in *****… However, like any development, it’s that startup solution that is necessary to help us start business in the state. So far, there have been no programs, grants, or funds set up to provide this for high cost Film & Media infrastructure development and when there are complaints about ROI regarding Film Tax Credit Programs, it’s because they mostly are aimed at servicing large visiting Hollywood productions and not building up local business and industry. Our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill changes that by giving artists a solution to start up and create local business and industry within their state through Infrastructure Tax Credits to build new studios, theaters, post-production houses, film festivals, film markets, and more. The alternative, as was indicated to us in a discussion with a film office representative, is to wait for a multi-millionaire to come in with the business interest, technical knowledge, and money to pay to build a film studio or for Hollywood studios to invest to set a permanent sound stage campus in the state but both methods require waiting for an opportunity that most likely may never come.
At the same time, the United States is also facing production flight and greatly increased competition from International studio developments, incentive programs, and talent drain. Media outlets aren’t helping matters either by gaslighting U.S. artists into believing that AI is going to take over all facets of production, streaming networks will be the only way to watch media, and that Youtubers are going to take over anything AI can’t with smaller productions. However, these false statements go against reality with Youtuber Mark Fischbach pushing for larger production and theatrical distribution beyond anything he has made on Youtube with his “Iron Lung” feature debut, Netflix continues to expand its large sound stage presence with the purchase of Radford Studios in Los Angeles and its new Fort Monmouth New Jersey studio with international moves into upgrading Mexican sound stage studios for Mexico-based Netflix productions, and even Youtuber Mr. Beast moved production of his hit “Beast Games” series to film in Saudi Arabia at AlHisn Big Time Studios in Riyadh to find the biggest sound stage possible to house the game challenges planned for the new season. The United Kingdom and other countries continue to announce new sound stage campuses seemingly almost every other week and by comparison, the United States has barely announced and followed through with any new sound stage construction within the past three years and 9 out of 10 of them have been for California and New York markets that have been in decline due to their increasingly worse business and community policies.
The biggest goal of our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill is to help solve the lack of development in the United States and to move beyond the status quo of Hollywood and New York that no longer serve the greater needs of the country to stay competitive in the face of these International developments. Clearly the rest of the world sees the value in large scale high-end production, they’re not giving up or throwing out excuses, they’re building and benefiting greatly from all of it. More than that, they are developing across every part of their countries, not just a single city like we do with Hollywood. While you may not have plans for adding infrastructure support to your program in *****, I would recommend reevaluating the current situation affecting the U.S. Entertainment Industry and how it can be solved with new independent Film & Media business development as our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill provides. We are reaching out to other states as well to adopt our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill and its innovative policies to increase jobs, business, industry, and workforce development, all much needed aspects to meet the demand for new production hubs beyond California and New York that are continuing their decline as the summer months progress. New Mexico just put out a report that they have had to turn away multi-million dollar productions upwards of $50 Million Dollars due to the lack of workforce despite their popular Film Tax Credit program, so what is New Mexico to do to fix this problem? Where will these productions go? Will they be delayed and keep the jobs and money locked up until 2027? None of these questions could be answered because there are no options or solutions available for New Mexico or artists to build with and the filmmakers will have to take productions elsewhere or wait in case they cannot produce without a chosen desert locale, all of which is bad for U.S business. Innovation and change are needed in the face of these unexpected turns in the industry and our alarming lack of development, all of which our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill legislation can help to provide.
Again, I ask that you consider our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill for *****, we can adapt its innovative solutions to fit within the current program to provide a boost to production as well as new Infrastructure Support. I would be glad to send you the most recent draft of our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill for Nevada to see what our bill can offer to incentivize local development and new levels of production for *****.”
Call to Action
Setting out to rescue the U.S. Entertainment Industry through not only our Babs Do Studios development but also through political legislation with our state and federal Universal Film Tax Credit Bills, we did not expect the lack of coordination, awareness, hesitance, unnecessary competition, and obstinance towards changing the status quo across the entertainment industry and the political sphere. As our message stated and has been increasingly growing in news headlines, California and New York are in decline in more ways than Film & Media. It will take far more money and time to turn things around in those states than it would to work on building Hollywood 2.0 across the country to make up for the already massive losses in the Multi-Billion Dollar U.S. Entertainment Industry and, most importantly, to secure its future.
Even now, new competing Federal Film Tax Credit Bill proposals are coming into the conversation, none so far have proposed anything more than adding another layer of production tax credits which, as we have stated and proven time and again, would literally be uselessly throwing money at the problem instead of solving it. Time and effort would be better spent by combining efforts around our Universal Federal Film Tax Credit Bill and incorporating any other possible proposed innovations from the other bills into one unifying Federal Bill.
The longer politicians and the industry continue to wait and hesitate, more job losses and talent drain will continue to pile up. Already there are several more major Hollywood sound stage studios going up for sale and Microsoft’s XBOX division is reportedly about to close multiple multi-million dollar videogame studios under their banner. International studios and businesses on the other hand are thriving and continuing to grow at a rapid pace with more $100+ Million Dollar studios being announced almost every other week.
The solution to all of this at the moment is to stay determined, have patience, and to not give up! The Film & Media industry presents a constant generator for jobs and business with globally tradeable products being made to profit across generations, politicians and industry investors cannot continue to ignore the need for change across the industry. No trends, tricks, or amount of waiting can solve the systemic problems the industry faces, only solid forward-thinking multi-faceted legislation can provide the solutions to strengthen, revitalize, and revolutionize domestic industry in the face of this new global competition and systemic decline in the U.S. Entertainment Industry.
We will continue to push forward our Universal Film Tax Credit Bills at the state and federal levels and find solutions to build Babs Do Studios to benefit the industry across multiple platforms. With new Film & Media systems and new “Hollywood 2.0” infrastructure built to utilize them, the United States of America can enter a new age of entertainment and nationwide business growth the likes of which have never been seen or dreamt of before! For now, send us messages of support, LOI’s for your entertainment companies, and help spread the word about our Universal Film Tax Credit Bills to your state representatives, senators, and film office officials, the 2027 Legislative Session is coming soon across multiple states, let’s work together to bring Hollywood 2.0 to as many states as possible!