Rollercoaster ride for jobs in film industry
NZ$200m NZ$500m US$40m
2012. Film New Zealand chief executive Gisella Carr said the data showed the early signs of what became a significant contraction in the industry from April last year. ‘‘We know conditions worsened . . . the people who are employed are, if you like, the canary in the mine here; they know they’re not getting work.
‘‘Of course the industry’s delighted the Government took decisive action at the end of last year and increased the incentive for both New Zealand and international film and television production.’’
In December it was announced A WRAP on filming The Hobbit, Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes left people out of work and cut about $130 million from Wellington’s screen industry last year.
But the Government’s controversial screen incentives scheme, announced last year, has put the industry ‘‘back on the radar’’, Film New Zealand says.
Apart from James Cameron’s $500 million Avatar sequels, however, future marquee productions remain under wraps.
Yesterday, Statistics New Zealand figures showed total screenindustry takings dropped 4 per cent in the year to April, 2013.
A $192m cut to production and post-production earnings caused by falling feature-film revenue had led the downturn.
But the industry was still worth $3.1 billion, having passed the $3b mark for the first time in that big budget international screen productions would be able to claim back 20 per cent of spending in New Zealand, up from 15 per cent.
Some productions would get as much as 25 per cent back, meaning the Avatar sequels will get at least $125m in taxpayers’ money in re- turn for spending at least $500m making the films here.
After the announcement, Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said the Avatar films alone would bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the capital.
Wellington businesses earned about $700m from films last year, dominating the domestic industry.
The Hobbit, Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes had brought industry revenues up massively to almost $830m in 2012.
Carr said the statistics did not reveal individual production spends, but last year The Hobbit, which was estimated to have cost $676m for the three films, would have contributed. Shooting on the films, and the Auckland-based Spartacus production, had since finished, however.
Post-production work such as animation and special effects was benefiting as a result, with revenue rising $91m last year.
The new incentives had also targeted television productions, with about $500m of production currently touring the world.
Auckland businesses accounted for 79 per cent of the country’s television earnings, worth $316m to the region.
Grow Wellington chief executive Gerard Quinn said several major foreign-financed projects had come to the region.
The agency’s 20-year-old screen programme Film Wellington provided filming permits, facilitation and advocacy between local government stakeholders, screen agencies and the sector.