Budget 2017: Film industry receives $300m boost over next four years

The government is boosting the local film industry to the tune of $303.9 million.

Economic Development Minister Simon Bridges and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry made the 2017 budget announcement in a West Auckland studio.

It contains a set representing a Michigan street scene in Ash Versus Evil Dead, the latest TV series from Rob Tapert, producer of Spartacus, Hercules and Xena.

Mr Bridges revealed a hitherto undisclosed screen career as a bare-chested Asian warrior in Xena. "I really liked it because of the good food and the higher pay I used to get," he quipped.

In the serious part of the presentation, Mr Bridges said the government grant comprised $222 million over four years and $18 million in 2016/17 to bring international productions to New Zealand and up to $63.9 million over four years for local film-making.

Mr Bridges says the local screen industry now has an international reputation and leads Ireland and New York as the world’s biggest for screen tourism. Some 18% of tourists have come here because of Sir Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy.

“Since 2014, the grant has supported around 50 international productions. The industry now employs 14,000 people working in over 24,700 jobs or contracts,” Mr Bridges says.

“Without the grant these international productions would not have located in New Zealand and much of the $3.3 billion would not have been spent here.”

Spinoff in tourism and high-tech exports

He says the industry also provides substantial spinoff for the high-technology sector, which is worth $16 billion and is the country’s third largest earner of export income.

“Technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics originally developed for film are being used and adapted in other areas such as health, gaming and carbon composites, bringing even more economic upside.”

Ms Barry says the domestic screen grants have supported 23 New Zealand productions since 2014, accounting for approximately $100 million spent in the local industry.

She says the international and domestic sectors are inextricably linked.

“Without the international movies coming here, the New Zealand industry’s craft side – the camera and technical people, the special effects – would not have thrived in the way they have,” she says. “They now have a career that is 12 months of the year.”