Two years after the debut of Michigan’s film incentive program, Gov. Jennifer Granholm praised the program’s success in her weekly radio address.
The film incentive program, which grants film producers a refundable tax credit of up to 42 percent of production expenses, was signed into law by Granholm in April 2008.
“When we created the film incentive program, we wanted to increase the number of productions filmed on location in Michigan, attract production facilities, create jobs and train workers for those jobs,” Granholm said in a statement.
Since 2008, 89 movie and TV productions were completed in Michigan, and these productions spent $348 million on local goods and services, according to the statement.
Because of the incentive, Michigan attracted productions such as “Gran Torino” and Drew Barrymore’s first production, “Whip It,” said Michigan Film Office Spokesman Ken Droz.
In 2008, about 2,763 jobs were created from productions and 4,000 jobs were created in 2009, Droz said.
Droz said he expects Michigan’s film industry to continue to grow and expand to other forms of media such as video games.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
