ALBUQUERQUE – When the makers of “Stranger Things” were looking for locations this year, they turned to one of the most sought-after hubs in the United States for new film productions: New Mexico’s high desert.
It doesn’t matter that a large part of the new season of the science fiction thriller takes place in a fictional city in Indiana and the former Soviet Union. The rapid growth of the New Mexico film industry made it a breeze for Netflix to move significant portions of its production from Atlanta to the state.
“After the pandemic, studios are looking for new creations,” said Ivan Wiener, 51, a former assistant to actor Dennis Hopper, who runs a concierge service for actors and executives from Netflix and other studios at Albuquerque Airport. “Albuquerque seems like the best place for it right now.”
Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of a crew member on the set of a film in Santa Fe County on Thursday drew attention to New Mexico’s rise as a production hub where streaming giants like Netflix and NBCUniversal are ramping up their investments.
The growth reflects decades of efforts to reduce reliance on New Mexico, one of the poorest states with consistently high unemployment, on taxes and royalties from oil exploration, which even as government finances account for about a third of its annual budget, executives seek to create cleaner sources of employment.
About 20 years ago, New Mexico began aggressively using tax incentives to attract productions from California, Texas, and other states. While New Mexico’s filmmaking tradition dates back to the late 19th century, the decision by the producers of the crime drama “Breaking Bad” to relocate from California’s Inland Empire in 2006 helped spark a resurgence in the state.
Since then, competition among streaming giants has fueled a production boom in Albuquerque and other New Mexico locations. Industry leaders cite New Mexico’s large pool of local union members and proximity to existing California studios, along with generous and sometimes politically controversial incentives, as reasons for growth.
Even after the coronavirus pandemic halted filming on sets across the country for months, New Mexico broke its own records for film and television production spending, hitting around $ 623 million in fiscal year July 2020 through July 2021, New Mexico said Mexico Film Office. State officials say the industry has about 9,000 residents, with an average annual wage of about $ 56,000.
The dozen new productions in the state span a range of genres, from Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho” to “Surrounded” to a female buffalo soldier in disguise to “Better Call Saul”, the prequel of “Breaking Bad”. ”
While a number of large studios and independent producers recently completed productions in New Mexico, Netflix is responsible for much of the growth in the state. After Netflix bought the ABQ Studios production complex and committed to spending $ 1 billion in New Mexico in 2018, Netflix went ahead in November 2020, announcing plans to expand operations and invest an additional $ 1 billion.
Similarly, in July, NBCUniversal opened an 80,000-square-foot production studio in a previously vacant beer and wine warehouse in Albuquerque’s Martineztown neighborhood. The studio, which is located near the city center, is expected to employ around 330 people.
Still, these ambitious projects have their own costs. In 2019, New Mexico increased the incentives, with the state now offering a discount of 25 to 35 percent of the state’s film production costs. Cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe also offer their own incentives in the race for productions.
The New Mexico Legislature’s Budget and Accountability Bureau recently warned that new production commitments from Netflix alone could increase tax credit payouts by tens of millions of dollars a year if the streaming giant expands.
In 2019, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, overcame criticism from budget hawks in both parties to pass laws that expand incentives while paying off $ 225 million already owed to the film industry.
Controversy over the incentives has become a staple of the legislature, and some Republicans liken it to giveaways to Hollywood executives. But New Mexico’s politics – which tends much more to the left than those in neighboring Arizona or Texas – have also contributed to the growth of the industry.
For example, “Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar,” a comedy starring Kristen Wiig that was released earlier that year, relocated production from Atlanta to Albuquerque in response to a law in Georgia attempting to prevent doctors from Perform abortions after six weeks.
In contrast, the governor of New Mexico signed a law this year strengthening the right to abortion in the state, fearing that the Supreme Court could overthrow Roe against Wade.
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