The actor’s union (SAG-AFTRA) strike took a 118-day bite out of Georgia’s busy 2023 filming schedule, slowing production to a handful of indie projects and the work from smaller studios not affected by the strike. But that didn’t slow the pace of infrastructure development across the state, where private investment in studios, backlots and other production assets continued steadily.
“Since January 2023, more than 800,000 additional square feet of state-of-the-art stage space has come online, so we can host more projects than ever before,” Lee Thomas, the deputy commissioner of the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office said in a statement. “Companies are also looking to build more visual effects and post-production facilities in the state, and we look forward to that development as well.”
The Georgia Department of Economic Development estimates Georgia already boasts 4 million square feet of stage space, and newly announced or completed projects will boost that figure even higher, looking to capitalize on the state’s generous film production tax credits.
The studios themselves aren’t built using the tax credit, says Randy Davidson, president of Georgia Entertainment, a specialty media company covering film, music, gaming and esports for content creators. “The people that get the credit are the companies that produce the product. For the studios, they just get the business,” he says.
The Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act applies statewide – and its windfalls have not focused solely on Atlanta. It’s true that the new crop of film asset investments includes expansions at Cinelease Studios – Three Ring in Covington and the 2023 opening of Gray Television’s Assembly Studios at the former General Motors Assembly Plant in Doraville. Other studios to open in 2023 include BlueStar at the former site of the Fort Gillem U.S. Army Depot in Forest Park, Athena Studios in Athens and Electric Owl Studios near the Indian Creek MARTA station in Atlanta. And Lionsgate Studios in Douglasville is set to open early this year. Other activity stretches as far south as St. Marys in Camden County on the Florida border. Meanwhile, the Savannah College of Art and Design – SCAD – has made a deep dive into backlot development to train film students and serve as a potentially lucrative source of rental income from professional productions.
