Where have all the film crews gone and with them the movie stars that occasionally dot our enchanted landscape? They're still around but their presence has been cut in half as Hollywood wrestles with an ever changing media environment. 

New Mexicans are spoiled by the glamorous industry as the state has some of the most generous film incentives in the nation. But even that can not stop the decline. From the NM Film Office: 

In fiscal year 2025, output economic impact of the state’s film tax credit dropped to $475.5 million while gross value added (GVA) dropped to $348.2 million. The year before, the output was at $1.089 billion and the GVA was at $797.9 million. In fiscal year 2022, the output peaked at $1.258 billion and the GVA peaked at $921.7 million. 

That's an awful lot of dollars streaming out of here and Film Office Director Steve Graham explains: 

(He) cited contraction in the industry after double strikes, slow COVID-19 recovery and mergers and acquisitions across the entertainment industry as primary indicators for the slump in production. He noted that his state is currently shooting 10 projects – film and series alike – down from 20 last spring. 

That reality has apparently hit Santa Fe Film Studios which has been put up for sale.

The state's film incentives have a $130 million annual cap for fiscal year 2025, with $101 million remaining as of the latest update. Netflix and NBCUniversal, called Film Partners for their lomg-term commitments to the state, are not subject to the cap so the actual amount going out the door is millions more.

WHAT TO DO? 

Other states are now ramping up their incentives and giving New Mexico more competition. That adds to the reasons why the heyday may have been seen here for film production. That leads us to one of our industry experts who speaks off the record about a new direction the state may want to take:

The slowdown isn’t just here but nationwide. Texas, California, Louisiana and others have responded by upping their incentives. I wouldn’t recommend that for New Mexico. We’ve gone as far as we should with the “partners” and it’s time to get back to what made us number one in the first place. 

We should move the Film Incentive Loan Program from the State Investment Council to the New Mexico Finance Authority and use lower-cost guaranteed loans to make movies in more modest budget ranges that target goals we can all agree on. Those goals could include having 90 percent New Mexican film crews and at least two of the big three positions in a production--writer, producer and director--be real locals.

Let’s not go further down the rabbit hole to compete with the bigger states. We invented film incentives. We can reinvent them to work better for us at a lower cost. We’ve reached the tipping point. We can do this ourselves and say thanks to our Film Partners for the boost but we'll  take it from here.

A longer term issue is the overall state budget--specifically federal funding for Medicaid and food stamps. If those items start eating away at the big surpluses, the film incentives could look like a luxury. All the more reason perhaps to reshape the industry now rather that losing an even larger piece of Hollywood down the road. (A complete list of movies shot in the state since 1897 is here.)

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