By StageRunner

For years, producers have faced the same calculation: a story set in America can cost less to shoot somewhere else. States have tried to close that gap with their own incentives, but they are competing against countries with national programs. A bipartisan bill introduced this week would change the calculation by adding a federal credit to qualifying state incentives. For U.S. crews, stages and post production businesses, that could be consequential. It is still a proposal, and its value will depend on the details that survive Congress.

The Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act proposes a 20 percent credit on qualifying U.S. production wages, with certain projects eligible for additional five percentage point increases, up to 30 percent. It covers films and television, including eligible compensation for actors, directors, writers, crew members and other production workers. Qualifying visual effects and post production work can receive a credit too. The credit would be transferable, allowing producers that cannot use it against their own taxes to sell it to another taxpayer.

That wage focus matters. A federal credit could influence where producers hire a crew, book a stage, build sets and finish a project. It would also sit alongside state programs. California, for example, offers a 35 percent base credit for many qualifying productions. Adding the proposed 20 percent federal rate gives producers two potentially powerful incentives to consider when budgeting a shoot. It does not mean every project gets 55 percent of its entire budget back: federal and state credits have different eligible costs, limits and rules.

The bill also makes a clear demand of productions seeking the main credit. A film or qualifying television production must have costs exceeding $1 million and conduct at least 75 percent of its principal photography days in the United States. That threshold could turn an American shoot from an expensive preference into a viable business decision. Separate provisions could support U.S. visual effects and post production even when a project does not meet the domestic filming threshold. That is welcome work, though finishing a film here does not fill the soundstage where it was shot.

There are targeted bonuses for independent productions, certain rural and disaster areas, and producers that increase domestic work relative to a historical foreign baseline. A separate provision rewards qualifying producers working across at least 10 states. These provisions could spread the benefit beyond the established production centers, while giving projects another reason to reconsider work they had planned to send abroad.

The stakes extend well beyond studios. A sustained production schedule supports the people who work between the opening and closing credits, as well as equipment houses, construction shops, transportation companies and local businesses. Christopher Nolan, speaking as president of the Directors Guild of America, called the bill “the most significant legislative effort in a generation to promote domestic film and television production.”

Supporters point to a Motion Picture Association commissioned study projecting $125.3 billion in additional U.S. production spending from 2027 through 2035 and an average of 143,500 additional full-time-equivalent jobs per year under a federal incentive. Those are modeled outcomes, not guaranteed results. The study examined assumptions developed before this bill was introduced, so its figures should not be treated as a forecast of the legislation’s exact effect.

The proposal also puts the Paramount–Warner Bros. settlement in sharper focus. Under the proposed consent decree, passage of an uncapped federal film incentive of at least 20 percent would trigger a requirement for the combined company to shoot at least 20 percent of its film production days in the U.S. for two years, rising to 30 percent for the following three. That condition concerns film days, not a guaranteed volume of television production. Even if the federal bill passes, a percentage of a company’s filming days is no substitute for a commitment to keep a substantial amount of work flowing to crews and stages.

And Congress has not passed the credit. Lawmakers have introduced a bill with support from both parties and the industry, but its cost, final terms and path through Congress remain unsettled. If enacted in its current form, it would apply to qualifying productions beginning in tax years after 2026. Producers cannot budget it as law today.

For StageRunner, the test is straightforward: will this bring productions back, and will the work last? A federal credit could give the U.S. something its state programs have lacked: a national incentive that makes hiring and filming here competitive on a project budget. Passing the bill would be a major step. Keeping American crews working will require producers to use it, states to make filming practical, and policymakers to measure the production that actually follows.