Disney Flees Florida For Greener Pastures In Neighboring State

In 1989, when Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened as Disney-MGM Studios, the concept was creating a working movie, television, and animation studio. Disney would make it the “Hollywood of the East.” Disney would film dozens of television shows and movies there, including the reboot of The Mickey Mouse Club with all the stars you remember. However, Disney Studios quickly realized that it wasn’t profitable to shoot in Florida, and the theme park was filling up without the draw of movie stars. So, by 2004, Disney had moved all of its production out of the park and back to California.

Related: Disney Wants to Remind Florida That It’s More Valuable Than Ron DeSantis

But by then, the state of Florida didn’t need Disney to have a production studio there. The state had a burgeoning film industry that was helped out by the weather and beaches. Why would a film company fly everyone to Hawaii to shoot in a tropical location when Florida was much closer and cheaper? Even Walt Disney Studios continued to do some work in the state despite shutting its full-time studio at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

But that was then, and this is now. The Walt Disney Studios and other major production companies have found greener pastures, literally, in neighboring states, especially Georgia. And, of course, those greener pastures were lined with money. According to the Orlando Sentinel, since 2008, Georgia has offered 30% back through tax credits. There is neither a cap on what a production can receive nor what the state can dole out. And that has brought filming to a state that never had it before.

Disney has taken advantage of this incentive by filming many of its Marvel films in Georgia rather than Florida. Captain America: Civil War (2016), X-Men: First Class (2011), Ant-Man (2015), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017), Spiderman: Homecoming (2019), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) were all filmed in Georgia. These films have budgets of hundreds of millions that are spent in the state, and that doesn’t include what the cast and crew spend locally on food and lodging.

Florida had a similar program but did away with it in 2016. And just last year, the state legislature removed the Florida State Film Office, whose job was to promote the state in Hollywood and convince producers and directors to use the state for big-budget films.  The Florida State Film Office was folded in Florida Commerce, so while it still technically exists, it lacks the proactive nature of an actual film office. Florida now joins Alaska, Delaware, Vermont, and Wisconsin as the only states in America without a film office.

Tyler Martinolich, head of Hillsborough’s film commission and Film Tampa Bay, told the Orlando Sentinel:

There is technically someone there to answer the phone and to answer questions, but … they’re not proactively going out and generating leads. There is really no marketing, no presence at festivals and tradeshows. They’ve largely left the conversation when it comes to courting new projects. The industry thrives on stability. Who will answer those calls now, and will the overall number of leads drop?

Film Florida estimates that the lack of tax incentives and a film office has cost the state more than 100 big-budget movies, which would have spent more than $2 billion in the state in the past two years. And that is serious money that the Walt Disney Company and other film studios would have spent in Florida.

So, while the Walt Disney World Resort isn’t going to leave Central Florida anytime soon, Disney has found a new Magic Kingdom just to the north that provides the tax breaks studios are looking for, and the rest can be built on a Hollywood soundstage.

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.