The TV and film industry’s economic impact in Illinois dropped by roughly $200 million in 2020, an expected decline after COVID-19 shut down filming for six months in the state.
Officials are looking forward to a recovery this year. Filming in Chicago and Illinois already has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Illinois and Chicago film offices.
Productions returning this year include NBC’s “Chicago P.D.,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”; “The Chi,” “South Side,” Showtime’s original series “Work in Progress,” and more.
"2021 seems like it's going to be a very strong year," said Peter Hawley, director of the Illinois Film Office. "We're right at the same levels we were at our record-breaking 2019 year. We're almost exactly where we were at 2020, which was going to be a gangbuster year for us."
The 2020 drop in economic impact followed 10 years of year-over-year growth, according to the city's and state’s film offices.
Filming in 2019 resulted in almost $560 million in job creation and local expenditures in the state and created more than 15,000 jobs (not including extras).
In 2020, total filming expenditures in the state sank to almost $362 million, and job creation was nearly cut in half. The state approved 208 projects, down from 335 in 2019.
Still, officials touted the fact that filming was able to return near the end of the year, per Illinois’ reopening guidelines. FX series “Fargo,” NBC’s “Chicago” series and studio film “The Batman” were among productions that resumed filming last year. There was also a Disney holiday film, Hawley said.
There is likely to be pent-up demand for film projects as well. Hawley said there is talk of some shows running two seasons back to back. Additionally, Illinois and Chicago could land projects that couldn't proceed in other states or Canada because of restrictions.
"It's been hard to get back to work in a lot of other states," he said.
The city issued 730 filming permits in 2020, down from 2,044 in 2019. Those permits include commercials, movies, music videos, TV series and more.
To stimulate further recovery, the state gave $21 million in grants to arts businesses, and the city focused on the film industry in its recovery plan, officials said.
Kwame Amoaku, director of the Chicago Film Office, said he expects to see a "huge increase" in employment and revenue created in Chicago's film and production industry.
To help with recovery, the film offices are working with developers to increase the amount of stage infrastructure in the city, Amoaku said. They're also increasing workforce development in underserved areas and marketing to studios and networks.
"We are actively seeking to enhance the film production infrastructure in the city, as well as the workforce, due to the fact that it's a huge economic driver and the demand is very high right now," he said. "Chicago is an attractive place for film projects to come and do their work."
State and city officials have been supportive in helping NBCUniversal’s productions resume safely, Veronica Sullivan, head of global production external affairs at NBCUniversal, said in a statement.
“We’re grateful to have our casts and crews back to work, to be supporting the local economy, and producing quality original content at our production hub at Cinespace in Chicago,” she said in the statement.
Chicago and Illinois are magnets for film producers in part because of the state’s 30 percent tax credit for production spending and labor expenditures. Illinois expanded the credit in 2018 so applicants can receive an additional 15 percent credit on salaries paid to workers who live in economically disadvantaged areas.
This story has been corrected to say that Illinois expanded the credit in 2018, not Gov. J.B. Pritzker expanded it.
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March 04, 2021 at 04:00AM
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Illinois and Chicago film, TV production drops amid COVID-19 - Crain's Chicago Business
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