Movie, Television Production Has Increased 36% Since 2002
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Filmmaking in the New York is at a peak after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Crews made 245 movies in New York last year, a 36% increase from 2002, the film commissioner, Katherine Oliver, said. Aggressive marketing and tax incentives are driving the recovery, with an added boost from the American dollar’s decline, she said.
“I really wanted to do a film here very much, but you have to crunch the numbers,” the director of “The Caller,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, Richard Ledes, said. He said tax credits and the exchange rate made New York $500,000 cheaper than Canada in his $5 million budget.
Movies and television shows made in New York contribute $5 billion a year to the city economy and employ 100,000 people, according to Boston Consulting Group, which the mayor’s office hired to assess the industry’s impact.
Filmmakers are winning entree to previously inaccessible locales, she said. Brooklyn Bridge traffic was diverted for 10 nights during the filming of “Stay.” Sydney Pollack got permission to shoot “The Interpreter” at the United Nations, which had never before permitted filming.
Movies being made on the streets of New York today include “The Taking of Pelham 123,” a remake starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta; “Julia & Julia,” directed by Nora Ephron, and “New York, I Love You,” an anthology.
