New Jersey just scored its biggest production win yet. Adam Sandler’s long-awaited Netflix sequel Happy Gilmore 2 pumped a record-breaking $152.5 million into the state’s economy over 64 shooting days, according to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.

The film — shot nearly three decades after the cult favorite original — is now the highest-spending production since the state reinstated its film and TV tax incentive program in 2018. The Sandler comedy averaged $2.3 million in daily spend, including $6.4 million on extras and $1.2 million on lodging, while filming across 31 municipalities and nine counties.

A Statewide Backlot

From golf courses in Bedminster, Bloomfield, and Montclair to private homes in Irvington and Belleville, the production leaned on the Garden State’s diverse locations to double for Happy Gilmore’s mix of suburban and country-club settings. Other prominent backdrops included Newark Liberty International Airport, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, and the former Essex County Isolation Hospital.

“New Jersey has become a happy place for filmmakers,” said NJEDA CEO Tim Sullivan, crediting the state’s competitive tax credits, local talent base, and location diversity. Jon M. Crowley, executive director of the state’s film commission, added: “From golf courses and universities to airports and beaches, New Jersey has everything a production company desires.”

Netflix’s East Coast Ambitions

Happy Gilmore 2 is part of Netflix’s growing footprint in New Jersey. The streamer, which has already filmed Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and upcoming titles The Whisper Man and Office Romance in the state, recently broke ground on a $1 billion, 500,000-square-foot production hub at Fort Monmouth. The facility is expected to create thousands of permanent and construction jobs, further cementing the state as a production powerhouse.

First Lady Tammy Murphy even visited the set with representatives from the governor’s office, underscoring the political support behind Governor Phil Murphy’s film-friendly agenda.

A Garden State Success Story

Since its return in 2018, New Jersey’s Film and Digital Media Tax Credit Program has attracted a surge of projects — but none on the scale of Sandler’s sequel. The record-breaking qualified spend not only boosted small businesses across the state but also showcased New Jersey’s ability to host large-scale studio productions with global reach.

And Sandler isn’t done. His Happy Madison Productions has already rolled cameras on another project in the state: the teen musical Don’t Say Good Luck, filming in Cranford, Livingston, and Ridgewood.

With a $152 million hole-in-one, the Garden State is suddenly looking like Hollywood’s new favorite fairway.