Film industry poised to have its best year in North Carolina

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Cameras are rolling on TV and movie sets across North Carolina, leading to what is expected to be the biggest year for the film industry in North Carolina history.

“This will go down as one of our best, if not the best years of record, in terms of spending by productions in the state,” said Guy Gaster of the NC Film Office during a virtual meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Council for NC Film/TV/Streaming Tuesday.

Gaster shared numbers that show to date in 2021, 72 projects completed “intent to film” forms with the state. That number includes 18 projects approved for the grant program, which offers eligible productions financial rebates of up to 25 percent on qualified expenses.

According to Gaster, the film industry is responsible for 20,000 job opportunities with $331 million in estimated direct in-state spending by productions this year.

“This number is only going to go up and I truly believe we will eclipse 2012′s high of $377 million by the end of the year,” said Gaster.

The council’s meeting was broadcast online.

Gaster said the productions so far consist of 4 TV series, 3 streaming series, 5 feature films, 5 made-for-TV streaming productions, 17 “drop in” or travel shows, 2 full season reality shows and 30 local films.

Wilmington continues to see a lot of action.

Netflix’s Florida Man, starring Edgar Ramirez (American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, The Undoing), will be filmed in Wilmington.

FOX’s Our Kind of People, Amazon’s The Summer I Turned Pretty and Hallmark’s One Summer are also filming in Wilmington.

Starz series Hightown, a Netflix film Along for the Ride, a Blumhouse thriller starring Ethan Hawke The Black Phone and I.S.S., a science fiction thriller, and FOX’s Welcome to Flatch wrapped production earlier this year.

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