During that period, Glynn County pulled its own share of high-profile projects here and there. Thomas said the legislature tried to get Georgia back in the limelight with a 2005 incentive bill, but it was limited in effect. She said the 2008 effort, called the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, turned everything around. The state changed with an industry that went from being location-driven to incentive-driven.
The 2008 law gave a flat 20 percent tax credit on qualified production expenditures and an additional 10 percent uplift to that if the company used a Georgia promotional logo — what many people see at the end of the credits for a movie or TV series filmed in the state.
From the beginning of the state film office in 1973 to 35 years later in 2008, the industry made a $5 billion economic impact. In Fiscal Year 2018 alone, there were 455 combined productions — films, TV movies and series, commercials and music videos — $2.7 billion in direct spending and $9.5 billion in economic impact.
As an example of these efforts, Thomas used the Will Smith film “Gemini Man,” which is set for release in October. That production used more than 330 vendors from 64 state localities, including Brunswick and St. Simons Island.
See more at Brunswick News.
