Trump calls for immediate approval but names no rate; U.K. and Ireland hosted 49 U.S. studio films in 2025 against 20 in Los Angeles
U.S. President Donald Trump said on August 31 that he supports a federal tax incentive for film and television production. In a post on Truth Social, he called on Congress to approve a Federal Production Incentive immediately. The post ends with a call to get it done.
The immediate trigger was a meeting with actor Jon Voight. Trump opened the post by describing the meeting with his Hollywood ambassador and said Voight and others in the industry are proposing federal tax incentives. Trump named Voight a special ambassador to Hollywood in January 2025 alongside Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, and Voight pressed the case again at a White House meeting in February 2026 (GV Wire, August 31).
Post names Canada as the destination for lost work; meetings with both parties' leaders in the works
In the post, Trump wrote that the American film and television industry is being dissipated in its entirety and that production has moved to Canada and other countries, with very little work being done in the United States. He called Hollywood a complete and total disaster, said there is no incentive to be there, and said California is being hurt badly.
He then said meetings with the leaders of both parties are being arranged, and argued the measure should be bipartisan because California and other largely Democratic states are absorbing the losses. His central ask is that Republicans and Democrats immediately craft legislation and that Congress approve a Federal Production Incentive without delay, work he said could be done quickly, accurately and efficiently, and would benefit the entire country.
The post also carried a fiscal claim: that money spent on tax incentives would be made up tenfold by money pouring into the Treasury. That assertion is where the post diverges most sharply from the existing record.
The Truth Social post published by President Trump on August 31. The screenshot shows the opening section; the calls for bipartisan action and congressional approval follow. Original: truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117192406705033763
Industry figures point to a 15% to 20% credit; the President named no rate
The post contains no percentage. The Wall Street Journal reported on August 31 that industry leaders have been discussing a federal credit of 15% to 20%, on the reasoning that adding that layer to credits many states already offer would make the U.S. competitive with the incentives and labor costs of Canada, the U.K. and Hungary, where a large share of film and series work is now produced.
The lobbying predates the post by roughly a year. According to the same report, studios, labor unions and members of Congress from production hubs including California had been pressing the White House to endorse a federal incentive, and many held off on speaking publicly until the President did, on the view that he was best placed to move a Republican-controlled Congress.
The proposal Voight advanced in early 2025 would apply a federal credit to all film and television produced in the U.S., and the MPA and the leading unions signed on. Backers calculate that a federal credit of at least 15%, combined with state credits, would make the U.S. competitive with most foreign jurisdictions. Scott Karol, who runs several companies for Voight's longtime collaborator Steven Paul, told The Wall Street Journal in October 2025 that a good federal incentive would push demand past the capacity of the major U.S. production hubs.
MPA and DGA welcomed the move the same day; Schiff says he agrees with the President
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) issued a statement the same day under chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin, welcoming the endorsement and describing a federal incentive as a step that would spread production across all 50 states. Russell Hollander, national executive director of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), said the union looks forward to working with the administration and Congress on a bipartisan bill.
The two lawmakers who have driven the federal incentive effort, Senator Adam Schiff and Representative Laura Friedman, are both Democrats. Schiff said in a statement that he is in strong agreement with the President, and Friedman said she agrees the legislation needs to pass quickly (The Hollywood Reporter, August 31).
The idea itself is not new. The Hollywood Reporter reported that a federal incentive has had bipartisan support for some time, with Republican lawmakers waiting on a signal from the White House. Trump raised the idea of tariffs on productions shot abroad in May 2025, immediately after a White House visit by Voight and Steven Paul, and returned to it in September 2025 and in a January 2026 interview with the California Post, where he also mentioned low-interest bonds for the film industry. No tariff was ever imposed. The Wall Street Journal noted that the proposal went nowhere partly because films are not physical goods moving through a port. Industry groups spent the intervening period steering the conversation from tariffs to tax credits.
Los Angeles County motion picture employment down 42,000 in two years
Bureau of Labor Statistics data put motion picture employment in Los Angeles County at about 100,000 at the end of 2024, down from 142,000 two years earlier. The figures were cited in The Wall Street Journal's October 2, 2025 feature on the region's entertainment economy.
Motion picture employment, Los Angeles County. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, via The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2025
Los Angeles and New York members of the health and pension fund covering most behind-the-scenes craftspeople logged 18% fewer hours through mid-August 2025 than in the year-earlier period. On an annual basis, hours peaked in 2021 and 2022, fell sharply during the 2023 strikes, recovered partially in 2024, and turn down again in the 2025 projection. The low 2020 figure reflects the pandemic shutdown.
Annual hours worked by behind-the-scenes entertainment workers in Los Angeles and New York; 2025 is projected. Redrawn from the graphic published in The Wall Street Journal on October 2, 2025, on the same axis; annual figures were not disclosed, so values are read off the printed scale. Source: Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans
Los Angeles County's population has fallen by nearly a quarter million since 2020, and its unemployment rate of 5.7% exceeds California's 5.5% and the national 4.3%. FilmLA recorded less production activity in the region in 2024 than in any year since at least 1995, apart from the pandemic.
Animator Brian Mainolfi, cited in the same report,, whose last show was canceled in 2024, has had no work beyond a college class paying $350 (about 490,000 won) a week, with union healthcare set to lapse at year's end. Thomas Curley, who won an Oscar for sound on the 2014 film "Whiplash," worked one week after April 2024. Animator Rachel Long retrained as a phlebotomist and now earns roughly a third of her previous $120,000 (about 168 million won) salary.
Elite YouTube creators sometimes employ more than 100 production workers in Los Angeles, but those jobs typically pay less than union work for Netflix or Warner Bros. and are too few to absorb the lost film and television positions. Animation and visual effects workers separately fear that generative AI will make parts of their work obsolete.
Writers reporting earnings and total earnings both fell after the strikes
The number of writers reporting earnings to the Writers Guild of America West and the total earnings they reported held roughly steady through 2022, then declined together across the 2023 strike year. The headcount did not recover in 2024; only reported earnings rebounded modestly.
Writers reporting earnings and total earnings reported to WGA West, indexed to 2022 = 100. Values are relative readings taken from the graphic published in The Wall Street Journal on October 2, 2025; absolute figures are not shown. Source: Writers Guild of America West
Matt Walsh, who landed his first scriptwriting assignment in 2023 on the TBS series "Miracle Workers," told the Journal he has not worked as a writer since the strikes ended and has returned to working as a production assistant.
U.S. shooting starts above $40 million down 30% in two years; KPop Demon Hunters was animated in Canada
ProdPro data show that nearly 30% fewer films and television series budgeted at $40 million (about 56 billion won) or more began shooting in the U.S. in 2024 than in 2022. The first three quarters of 2025 fell another 13%.
U.S. shooting starts for productions budgeted above $40 million, indexed to 2022 = 100. Source: ProdPro, via The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2025
"Fantastic Four" shot outside London, and "KPop Demon Hunters" was animated in Canada. Amazon's "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" used Hungary and Croatia for inexpensive crews and scenic locations. Georgia, which absorbed Los Angeles work for years, has also been losing large productions as U.S. costs rise.
Financiers of "The Last Firefighter," shot in Los Angeles in August 2025, said the production cost at least a third more than shooting overseas. Producer Steven Paul said he chose Los Angeles because he could not argue for bringing production back to America while filming everywhere else.
Q2 shoot days in Los Angeles at 4,711; features down about 20% to 443
FilmLA counted 4,711 on-location shoot days in the Los Angeles region in the second quarter of 2026, down from 5,394 a year earlier and 5,121 in the prior quarter, and roughly 36% below the five-year average. Feature shooting fell about 20% to 443 days, with independent films making up most of what remained. Television rose 34.4% from the first quarter to 1,607 days but was still down 28% year over year, dragged by a roughly 40% drop in reality production. Commercials fell about 22%.
On-location shoot days in the Los Angeles region, by quarter. The dashed line is derived from FilmLA's stated 36% gap to the five-year average. Source: FilmLA
On-location shoot days in the Los Angeles region by category, Q2 2026. Dashes mark figures not published. Source: FilmLA, as reported by Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap and Variety in July 2026
California expanded its program in the summer of 2025 to $750 million (about 1.05 trillion won) a year and raised the base credit to 35%. In the year since, 170 projects were awarded credits, and incentivized titles accounted for 33% of feature shoot days in the second quarter. Total volume has not turned. ProdPro's second-quarter tally put California production spending at $1.33 billion (about 1.86 trillion won), up 5% year over year, with project counts up 11% — a divergence between statewide spending and shooting inside Los Angeles.
At the March 20 Senate spotlight hearing "Lights, Camera, Competition" in Burbank, convened by Schiff, Friedman said 40% of production jobs had disappeared in three years and one-third of soundstages were sitting empty. Variety reported that more than 50,000 jobs have been lost in Los Angeles since 2022. Stage occupancy has slipped from the mid-90s to 62%.
The Wall Street Journal reported that entertainment workers in Georgia and elsewhere are facing a severe lack of work, driven by the move of production overseas alongside a decline in the number of TV series being made.
Draft sets a 15% credit on labor costs, modeled on Canada's federal program
No bill has been formally introduced. TheWrap reported on June 23 that Schiff's draft would offer a 15% federal credit against labor costs, structured similarly to Canada's federal incentive, with uplifts for productions meeting certain criteria, including work relocating to the U.S. from abroad.
The Hollywood Reporter reported in July, citing sources, that the incentive could be folded into a tax package, moved through reconciliation, or introduced as a standalone bill. TheWrap reported that lobbyists are keeping open the option of attaching it to a year-end tax extenders package after the 2026 midterms.
The only federal support available to U.S. productions today is Section 181 of the Internal Revenue Code. Introduced under the George W. Bush administration, it allows a deduction on up to the first $15 million (about 21 billion won) of production spending, or $20 million (about 28 billion won) for shoots in low-income areas. It is a deduction rather than a credit, and the ceiling is low enough that it rarely moves a large production's location decision.
The U.K. allows above-the-line salaries for actors and directors to count toward its national credit, and productions with a U.K. partner can receive additional rebate payments after release to cover back-end deals. Canada runs a federal program calculated on labor costs with provincial programs layered on top. That Canadian structure is the model Schiff's draft follows.
U.K. and Ireland hosted 49 studio films in 2025 against 20 in Los Angeles
Luminate Intelligence's May special report, "Hollywood Exodus 2026," counted 49 major and mini-major U.S. studio films shot in the U.K. and Ireland in 2025, against 20 in Los Angeles. In 2019 the field was even: Los Angeles and Canada at 28 each, New York at 27, the U.K. and Ireland at 25.
Major and mini-major U.S. studio film shoot locations, by release year. Source: Luminate Film & TV
Forty percent of U.S. scripted series released in Q1 2019 filmed in Los Angeles; for Q1 2026 the share was below 25%. Scripted series shot in the city fell from 42 to 15 over that span. Vancouver absorbed much of the damage from the collapse of broadcast drama.
Of major U.S. titles released between 2019 and 2025, more than 600 were shot in Canada and nearly 400 in the U.K. and Ireland. The share of U.S. projects shot abroad reached 45% in 2025.
Major U.S. scripted film and TV titles by shooting country, releases from 2019 to 2025. Source: Luminate Film & TV
The U.K.'s 34% credit is uncapped and above-the-line costs such as actor salaries count as qualified expenses, which is not the case in California. Inward investment in U.K. film and TV rose to £5.8 billion in 2025 from £5 billion, and U.S. films shot there in 2025 carried an average cost of £87 million, or about $115 million. "Avengers: Doomsday" and Greta Gerwig's "Narnia" are on that list.
Canada allows its federal credit to be combined with provincial programs, most of them uncapped. Foreign production spending reached CAD 5.32 billion ($3.9 billion) in fiscal 2024-25, up 9.5% year over year. Hungary hosted 58 U.S. titles between 2019 and 2025, the most in Eastern Europe, with the Czech Republic next at 33.
Production spending and program features at major hubs. Sources: Luminate Intelligence, "Hollywood Exodus 2026"; BFI; CMPA; Georgia Dept. of Economic Development; Empire State Development; New Jersey Economic Development Authority
Georgia productions fell from 412 to 245; two Avengers films moved to the U.K.
TheWrap counted 245 productions in Georgia in 2025, down from a peak of 412 in 2022 — a drop of more than 40% under an incentive program that has not been cut.
Film and television productions shot in Georgia. Source: TheWrap, June 23, 2026
Disney and Marvel Studios were part of that exodus. Having shot earlier installments including "Avengers: Endgame" at Trilith Studios outside Atlanta, they moved the next two Avengers films to the U.K. Recent cap increases in California, New York and New Jersey have slowed the outflow, but the industry view is that state programs can only carry so much.
State rates span 15% to 45%; Georgia runs uncapped and transferable
With Wisconsin restoring its program on January 1, 2026, Luminate counts 38 states plus Washington, D.C. running some form of production incentive, leaving 12 states with none. Other tallies reach 39 states by including Puerto Rico, so the count varies with the definition. Most are tax credits; a handful of states offer rebates on taxes already paid instead.
U.S. programs return between 15% and 45% of qualified spend. Georgia has no annual or per-project cap and fully transferable credits, and added a 20% post-production credit on a minimum $500,000 (about 700 million won) spend effective January 2026. Illinois raised its base credit to 35% and extended the program through 2039 under Senate Bill 1911, signed in December 2025. Louisiana cut its annual cap to $125 million (about 175 billion won) while removing per-project and per-person limits.
With state programs already dense, a federal credit layered on top narrows the effective cost gap against Canada, the U.K. and Australia. U.S. incentives are generally calculated on qualified spend incurred within the jurisdiction, so the test is where the money is spent rather than who owns the production company.
State programs alone may not pull large productions back. California's credit does not cover above-the-line costs such as star salaries, and its limited funding is allocated through a competitive application process. Producers told The Wall Street Journal that this structure limits its ability to attract big-budget work.
Selected state production incentives, 2026. Sources: GreenSlate (updated August 21, 2026); Shamel Studio
New York runs the largest state program at $800 million a year, $100 million of it reserved for independent films. California's $750 million sits just below New York's previous $700 million figure. Texas expanded its funding from 2024 and raised its biennial allowance from $200 million to $300 million, while New Mexico's 2023 legislation steadily lifts its cap from $110 million to $160 million over five years.
State production incentive budgets. Sources: Olsberg SPI; Luminate Intelligence Research
Production incentive programs worldwide grew from 86 in 2017 to 127 by the first quarter of 2026. In the last two years alone, Mexico launched its first film tax credit, Greece and Romania restarted rebate programs, Denmark and Qatar introduced rebates for the first time, the U.K. reworked its incentives for more generous terms, and New Zealand strengthened its rebate by removing a cap on above-the-line costs.
Production incentive programs worldwide by region; 2026 as of Q1. Sources: Olsberg SPI; Entertainment Partners; Luminate Intelligence Research
Luminate's reading is that few genuine new hubs have emerged from the competition; instead production has become more splintered as the number of options grows.
Studio CEOs to appear publicly, under a DGA contract sideletter
Lobbyists from IATSE and SAG-AFTRA, among other stakeholders, have held continuous meetings with lawmakers of both parties explaining how incentives drive production decisions. SAG-AFTRA general counsel Jeff Bennett told TheWrap on June 23 that the sustained education effort has changed the starting point, and that lawmakers now bring a basic familiarity to every conversation.
Under president Christopher Nolan, the Directors Guild of America negotiated a sideletter with the AMPTP in which studios agreed to make some top executives available to publicly push for a federal credit. Three insiders told TheWrap that the AMPTP was initially reluctant and brought the MPA into the discussion to weigh the strategic value of putting CEOs behind the effort. The sideletter does not name which executives would appear.
The unions are also waiting on commissioned studies of the economic impact of a federal incentive. Bennett's view is that each new White House comment on the subject generates momentum among Republicans.
Some Republicans wary of subsidizing a liberal-leaning industry; soundstage owners are in favor
The Wall Street Journal reported that some Republicans could be reluctant to subsidize an industry whose best-known figures are predominantly liberal. The counterargument runs through the workforce: many entertainment jobs are blue-collar, and the workers are as politically varied as the communities they live in. Real-estate developers holding half-empty soundstage complexes have also backed a federal incentive.
The MPA issued its endorsement immediately after the President's statement. The task from here, the same report noted, is pushing bipartisan tax legislation through a sharply divided Congress alongside the unions and studio executives.
Disney and NBCUniversal already hold U.K. hubs; television has more room to move than film
Disney and NBCUniversal have leased or built production hubs in the U.K., which makes a quick shift of film work back to the U.S. unlikely, according to The Wall Street Journal. Television production is more flexible, and in aggregate it employs more people than film does.
Incentives weigh heavily on where studios choose to shoot, particularly on large-budget productions. Whether they represent an efficient use of state economic development funds is a separate question that studies have repeatedly raised.
U.S. production jobs down nearly 122,000; the problem is not confined to L.A.
Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Luminate found that total U.S. film and TV production jobs as of January 2026 were down by nearly 122,000 from their 2022 peak. Employment throughout 2025 stayed below the level recorded during the 2023 work stoppage, when most production had halted.
Theatrical releases from major and mini-major studios reached a post-COVID high of 144 in 2025 but were still 13% below the 166 of 2019. Broadcast series fell from 212 to 154 and cable series from 986 to 571 over the same period. SVOD series dropped more than 30% from a 2022 peak of 596 to 384 in 2025.
Major U.S. studio and streaming service releases by category. Source: Luminate Film & TV
Series costing under $5 million an episode accounted for 82% of U.S. scripted releases in 2019 but fewer than two-thirds in 2025. At the other end, episode budgets above $20 million became standard for large franchise series. The middle of the range is thinning.
Across 2023 to 2025, Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures held roughly steady, with Paramount increasing outlays after Skydance took control and Netflix ramping up more carefully than before. Luminate reads that as a sign production is unlikely to expand significantly in the near term.
Generative AI is not yet the main driver of the job losses, in the same report's assessment, though its adoption in pre-production and post is real. Image generators for previsualization and large language models for script breakdowns are already commonplace, and de-aging, compositing, lip sync and dubbing voices are routinely assisted by the technology. Luminate expects the visual effects sector, already squeezed by working conditions and shrinking demand, to be hit hardest in the short term.
The tenfold claim runs against state evaluations; Georgia's program costs over $1 billion a year
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported in April 2026 that Georgia's program, costing more than $1 billion (about 1.4 trillion won) annually, was calculated to have a negative return on investment. A 2014 analysis commissioned by the Michigan Film Office put the return at -62%, and a Canadian cost-benefit analysis at -96%. The report's conclusion is that assessments differ on the size of the loss rather than its direction.
Luminate notes that independent, peer-reviewed analyses have consistently found that the economic rewards of these programs do not outweigh their costs to state governments and residents. Multiple pre-COVID economic studies argued that incentives alone have little effect on employment, and that California's film industry jobs track the overall U.S. labor market far more closely. That is the basis for Luminate's doubt that a federal credit would restore studio output to peak levels.
Those analyses all cover state programs. A federal credit runs through different taxing authorities and different tax bases, and a labor-cost design like Schiff's draft brings income and payroll tax recovery into the calculation. No federal cost estimate has been published.
At the March hearing, Friedman noted that incentives are standard practice in semiconductors, energy and pharmaceuticals, and said Hollywood is not asking for special treatment (Los Angeles Times, March 20; secondary citation).
15% of New Zealand visitors still cite Lord of the Rings; U.K. film tourism spending reached £597.7 million
Comparing credits granted against tax revenue generated by production spending is the standard frame for evaluating incentives, and the evaluations cited by the Mackinac Center and Luminate use that frame. Visitor demand created by a shooting location arrives through a separate channel, after release.
Twenty-five years after "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 15% of visitors to New Zealand still credit the franchise with influencing their decision to travel there, per MBIE's International Visitor Survey for the year ended March 2026. Hobbiton, the Shire set, drew 600,000 visitors in 2025, and film tourism queries account for 2% of Google search referrals to Tourism New Zealand's site, ahead of categories such as food and wine or accommodation.
Surveys in the U.K. indicate that one in five overseas visitors cite a TV show or film among their reasons for visiting, and the BFI's Screen Business analysis put film-related tourist spending at £597.7 million in 2016, supporting 13,440 full-time-equivalent jobs and £628.3 million in gross value added. VisitBritain targets that demand with its "Starring GREAT Britain" campaign, which folds titles from Paddington to Bridgerton into a single reel.
Tourism NI estimated roughly 350,000 leisure visitors a year were motivated by "Game of Thrones" in 2018-19. Leeds reported that visitor numbers at the Brontë Parsonage Museum rose 170% after the 2026 release of "Wuthering Heights."
Screen tourism measures at selected locations. Sources: MBIE International Visitor Survey; Tourism New Zealand; BFI Screen Business; Tourism NI; Leeds City Council (via City Nation Place, July 30, 2026, and related compilations)
Visitor demand goes to the place shown on screen. A shoot won with a credit leaves none if the title never shows the location. With 127 incentive programs diluting the pull of any single one, the case for finding the value of a location outside the tax code is getting louder.
Korea logged a record 10.71 million inbound visitors in H1 with tourism receipts up 36.4%
Yanolja Research's August 7 analysis of Korea's inbound and outbound tourism for the first half of 2026 put inbound visitors at 10.71 million, up 21.3% year over year and the highest for any half-year on record, and 26.9% above the same period in 2019. Tourism receipts rose 36.4% and receipts per visitor rose 12.4%. The tourism balance turned positive in March and stayed positive through June.
Korean inbound tourism indicators, first half of 2026. Source: Yanolja Research, "Analysis of Korea's Inbound and Outbound Tourism Performance in H1 2026," August 7, 2026
Inbound arrivals reached 18,936,562 in 2025, 8.2% above the previous record of 17.5 million set in 2019 and up 15.7% year over year. China led with 5.48 million (+19.1%), followed by Japan at 3.65 million (+13.3%). The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism attributed the record to the spread of Korean content — K-pop, drama and film — combined with on-the-ground recruitment by the travel industry. First-quarter 2026 arrivals of 4.76 million were the highest on record for a first quarter, reaching 6.77 million through April, and foreign card spending in April alone hit a monthly record of about 1.9 trillion won (about $136 million).
The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute found that foreign visitors accounted for 44.7% of attendance at the BTS concert held at Gwanghwamun in March 2026, concentrating foreign arrivals in a defined window and pairing them with lodging, transport, retail and food spending.
Under a model in which domestically shot content is distributed through global platforms, much of the IP and distribution revenue accrues to foreign operators. Spending generated by location visits stays onshore across lodging, transport, food and retail. The tax route is also narrow: the Article 25-6 credit sunsets in 2028, the 2026 tax bill adds a step-down, and there is no location incentive aimed at foreign productions.
With 127 incentive programs worldwide, Korea has little room to climb the shooting-location rankings through tax competition, and less still once the U.S. strengthens the pull of its own territory. Visitor demand, by contrast, operates independently of what Washington decides.
Korean content is the top trigger for interest in visiting Korea at 39.6%; viewers are 1.9 times likelier to intend a trip
In the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute's second-quarter 2024 survey of inbound visitors, "after encountering Korean content" was the leading trigger for interest in traveling to Korea at 39.6%, ahead of traditional Korean culture at 32.4% and wanting to visit a new country at 27.8%. Food at 60.8% and shopping at 56.2% ranked highest among considerations during the trip.
Netflix's "Netflix Effect" report, published in May 2026 to mark a decade of global expansion, found that 72% of viewers of Korean content expressed an intention to visit Korea against 37% of non-viewers, a factor of roughly 1.9. The same report said Netflix invested $135 billion in film and series production over the decade from 2016, generating $325 billion in added value.
Trip.com recorded that between June 20 and August 31, following the release of "KPop Demon Hunters," bookings to Korea rose 146% year over year from Spain, 122% from Germany, 107% from Italy, 94% from Russia and 75% from Switzerland, with Europe as a whole up 79% — a departure from the Asian center of gravity of earlier Korean-content travel demand.
Indicators of conversion from Korean content to travel and spending. Sources: Korea Culture and Tourism Institute Q2 2024 inbound visitor survey; Netflix, "Netflix Effect" (May 2026); Trip.com; KOFICE; Hotels.com Unpack '26
Food ranks first among trip considerations at 60.8%; K-food exports hit $8.4 billion
In the same survey, food ranked first among considerations during the trip at 60.8%, with shopping at 56.2% — the point at which interest generated by viewing turns into spending on meals and goods during a stay.
Reservations at restaurants run by chefs featured on "Culinary Class Wars" rose an average of 148% in the week after the first season premiered, against the previous week. Searches for those restaurants rose 74-fold and saves 20-fold over the same period, per CatchTable and Netflix — the effect registering immediately in domestic dining.
Exports moved the same way. K-food exports passed $8.4 billion (about 11.76 trillion won) from January to September 2025, a record for the period. Instant noodles led at $1.13 billion (about 1.58 trillion won), up 24.5%, with seaweed at $880 million (about 1.23 trillion won), up 14%. Cumulative K-Food+ exports reached $11.24 billion (about 15.74 trillion won) by the end of October, up 5.7%. The Korea Customs Service cited the global success of "KPop Demon Hunters" as a factor expected to support further growth.
K-food export performance. Sources: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Korea Customs Service
KOFICE estimated total Hallyu-driven exports for 2024 at $15.183 billion (about 20.9 trillion won), roughly 905.1 billion won more than the previous year, combining its overseas Hallyu survey of 26,400 respondents across 28 countries with export statistics. The core of the estimate is that related exports of food, beauty products and consumer goods exceed content exports themselves.
Domestic spending also occurs at the production stage. "When Life Gives You Tangerines" involved some 600 cast and crew and about 4,000 supplier companies, contributing more than 90 billion won (about $64 million) to the Korean economy. When shooting happens domestically, production outlays and visitor spending land in the same market.
Visitors to Cheongnyeongpo in Yeongwol rose 5.3-fold over the Lunar New Year holiday
Yeongwol in Gangwon Province, the setting for "The King's Warden," the top-grossing film of the first half of 2026, recorded 10,641 visitors at Cheongnyeongpo over the Lunar New Year holiday, 5.3 times the 2,006 of a year earlier. Jangneung drew 7,275 against 1,083, more than sixfold, and train tickets to Yeongwol sold out ahead of the March 1 holiday. Theatrical releases follow the same path.
On Jeju, "When Life Gives You Tangerines" runs through Seongsan Ilchulbong, Gwangchigi Beach and the Seongeup folk village, and "Welcome to Samdal-ri" through Dodubong and Ojo Port, which the Jeju Tourism Organization has repackaged as a location route. Around Jumunjin in Gangneung, the breakwater from "Goblin" and the Sodol breakwater and Jumunjin lighthouse from "The Glory" fall on a single circuit. Incheon Tourism Organization built a "drama Incheon" route around the Seonnyeobawi beach on Yeongjong Island from "Crash Landing on You" and Songdo Triple Street from "Itaewon Class."
Principal filming locations by title. Sources: Korea Tourism Organization; Jeju and Incheon Tourism Organizations; Seoul Facilities Corporation; Yeongwol County
Seoul Facilities Corporation counted 150 dramas, films and variety programs shot at its venues alone in 2025. Gwanghwamun Square and N Seoul Tower, along with Itaewon and Noksapyeong from "Itaewon Class," have become fixed coordinates for foreign visitors, as have Bukchon, Myeongdong and N Seoul Tower from "KPop Demon Hunters."
Only places repeatedly shown on screen generate visitor demand. When the U.S. loses production it loses not just the jobs but the on-screen exposure of its places, which transfers to the U.K., Canada and Hungary along with the shoots. Iseltwald in Switzerland still draws up to 1,000 visitors a day to a village of about 400 residents six years after "Crash Landing on You" ended, as The Washington Post reported. The country that wins the shoot is not what matters; the place that appears on screen takes the visitor demand.
Korea's record of attracting U.S. studio work does not register in the data, but domestically shot Korean content in constant global circulation keeps both production and on-screen exposure onshore. The second channel operates regardless of where Korea sits in the incentive rankings.
Visitor spending stays in tourism; there is no route from it to box office revenue
Spending generated by location visits accrues to lodging, transport, food and retail. There is no route from it to box office revenue or producer margins. Screen tourism is a recovery mechanism for the tourism and regional economy, not a substitute for the funding of exhibition or production.
A bill amending the Promotion of the Motion Pictures and Video Products Act (영비법) to mandate holdbacks is pending in the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee. It would bar distribution on streaming services and other platforms for a set period after a theatrical run ends. Exhibitors, including the Korea Cinema Association (한국영화관산업협회), argue that shortened holdbacks are accelerating the decline in admissions.
Bong Joon-ho (봉준호) and 580 other film professionals issued a statement in April calling for the bill to be withdrawn entirely, arguing that with screen monopolization already shortening theatrical runs, a mandated holdback would delay recoupment through post-theatrical windows. The Directors Guild of Korea (한국영화감독조합) also opposed it.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (공정거래위원회) said a mandatory six-month holdback could restrict competition among streaming services and reduce consumer choice and welfare. The Korean Film Council (영화진흥위원회) warned it could weaken the revenue base for smaller films and push more titles straight to streaming. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has pursued a voluntary industry agreement rather than a uniform statutory period, launching a public-private council on distribution structure in May. The debate has shifted to title-by-title exemptions, with proposals to vary holdbacks according to screen and seat occupancy and production budget.
Positions on the proposed holdback mandate. Sources: Yonhap News, August 9, 2026; MTN, August 14, 2026; ZDNet Korea, August 7, 2026; Asia Today, August 19, 2026; Korea NGO News
Netflix, the largest player in streaming, did not join the public-private council, and in the first half of the year it released "Humint" and "Wild Thing" 49 and 58 days after their theatrical openings, breaking the convention that major releases took longer to move platforms.
Kim Joo-ho (김주호) of People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (참여연대) said that introducing a holdback without first addressing market concentration and ticket pricing would pass the cost to consumers. The ministry is running a 27.1 billion won (about $19 million) program this year discounting 6,000 won per cinema ticket.
Visitor demand from shooting locations stays in the tourism sector at the regional level, while recoupment for exhibition and production is settled through release windows and the tax code. That is why screen tourism cannot be offered as an answer to the theatrical crisis, and why the two debates do not belong on the same ledger.
Korea's top rate is 30% with a 2028 sunset; the 2026 tax bill adds a step-down
Korea's production cost tax credit is set out in Article 25-6 of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act (조세특례제한법). Base rates are 5% for large companies, 10% for mid-sized firms and 15% for SMEs, with additional rates of 10%, 10% and 15% bringing the maximum to 15%, 20% and 30%. The provision runs through December 31, 2028. When the rates were raised in 2023, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (문화체육관광부) framed the change as matching levels abroad: 20-30% in the U.S. and France, 20-25% in Germany and the U.K., and 25% in Canada.
Korean production cost tax credit rates; the provision runs through December 31, 2028. Source: Restriction of Special Taxation Act, Article 25-6
The 2026 tax revision bill announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (재정경제부) on August 3 introduces a step-down structure for the film, television and webtoon production credit, applying a 12.5% rate for three years after a company's SME grace period ends. Korea's content industry budget for 2026 is 705 billion won (about $504 million), up 8.2% year over year.
A December 2021 amendment brought production costs incurred outside Korea into the base credit, and a December 2022 amendment added video works delivered through streaming services from 2023. The additional credit, however, requires separate conditions including a share of shooting costs spent domestically.
A federal U.S. credit would change the cost structure of American location work for Korean producers. Because state incentives are calculated on qualified spend inside the state, generating local spend through a U.S. entity creates room to stack a federal credit on top of state credits. On the Korean side, that same U.S. spend counts toward the base credit but can work against the domestic-spend conditions for the additional credit, so the split between U.S. and Korean expenditure becomes a budgeting variable.
An enforcement rule added in March 2024 provides that where a producer holds rights jointly, it is treated as holding those rights only if it receives at least 50% of the revenue from exercising them. The U.K. approach — extra rebates for productions with a domestic partner — points in a different direction, but in both systems the revenue-sharing clause in a co-production agreement determines whether the incentive applies.
Production incentive structures compared. Sources: TheWrap, June 23, 2026; Restriction of Special Taxation Act Article 25-6; state incentive summaries
Korea does not appear on the list of shooting destinations for U.S. productions. The top ten countries in Luminate's 2019-2025 count are Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, Italy, Australia, Hungary, Spain, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and the Czech Republic. Whatever the state of its infrastructure and crews, Korea's inbound work does not register in the data.
Korea's record of attracting U.S. productions does not register in the data, but domestically shot Korean content consumed abroad generates visitor demand on its own. That leaves the second channel available without climbing the incentive rankings.
Local governments built 34 drama and film set towns by 2013, some with investments above $1 million, but the sites ran into operating deficits and the search for a sustainable model remains open, per research by Kim, Kim and Heo (2015). Building sets and connecting actual shooting locations into visitor routes are different cost structures. VisitBritain's consolidated campaign and location-search applications sit in the latter category.
The U.K. drew U.S. studio films by treating above-the-line costs as qualified spend and running the credit without a cap. New Jersey offers a 40% credit and a separate pool of funds to companies committing to occupy studio space long term. Lionsgate, Netflix and Paramount took the three studio-partner slots, and production spending rose from $500.5 million in 2021 to an estimated $1.1 billion in 2025. The condition attached is facility occupancy rather than a single shoot.
Stronger U.S. incentives intensify competition for inbound location work. Hwang Sun-kwon (황선권), head of the production services company Nine Tailed Fox (나인테일드폭스), told the Korean Film Council (영화진흥위원회) webzine in March 2025 that other countries return 20-30% and sometimes up to 40% of production costs, adding that the first question in any overseas shooting meeting is what incentive that country offers. Korea has studios, equipment and crews, but its location incentive aimed at foreign productions remains comparatively thin.
The Korean Film Council is running an international co-production pilot program in 2026, and CJ ENM used its Global Partners Day 2026 in August to push expanded collaboration with overseas creators. A federal U.S. credit would change the recoupment math for co-production structures that include American spend.
What matters next is bill text and timing
What is confirmed at this point is the President's endorsement and a plan for meetings with both parties' leaders. The credit rate, the scope of qualifying spend, whether streaming service originals are included, and whether an annual cap applies all depend on bill text that does not yet exist. With the 2026 midterms and the year-end tax calendar converging, the first checkpoint falls before the end of the year.
Sources
· Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Truth Social post, August 31, 2026 — truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117192406705033763 (original reviewed)
· Ben Fritz, "Trump Calls for Federal Film and Television Tax Incentive," The Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2026 (September 1 print edition) — wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-calls-for-federal-film-and-television-tax-incentive-e24dd763
· Ben Fritz, "L.A.'s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie," The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2025 (October 4 print edition) — employment, hours, shooting starts and individual cases — wsj.com/business/media/los-angeles-entertainment-economy-downturn-7879105c
· Katie Kilkenny, "Trump Calls for Passage of Federal Film and TV Tax Incentive," The Hollywood Reporter, August 31, 2026
· "Trump Backs Federal Film & TV Tax Incentive," Deadline, August 31, 2026
· Jeremy Fuster, "Trump Calls on Congress to Pass Federal Production Tax Incentive After Meeting With Jon Voight," TheWrap, August 31, 2026
· "Trump Endorses U.S. Tax Incentive to Keep Hollywood Production," Variety, August 31, 2026
· "Trump Proposes Federal Tax Credits to Boost US Film and TV Production," Bloomberg, August 31, 2026
· "Trump Urges Congress to Pass Tax Incentives for Entertainment Industry," GV Wire, August 31, 2026
· Jeremy Fuster, "Inside Hollywood's Plan to Sell Congress and Trump on a Federal Film Tax Credit," TheWrap, June 23, 2026 — Schiff draft, Section 181, Georgia production counts, DGA sideletter — thewrap.com/industry-news/business/can-hollywood-sell-congress-trump-on-federal-film-tax-credit/
· "U.S. Film Incentives Prove Opposites Attract As Left & Right Look To Boost Biz," Deadline, May 13, 2026
· "Hollywood's Push for Federal Film Tax Credit Could Help Boost Production in All States," Variety, August 2026
· FilmLA Q2 2026 report, as covered by Deadline (July 24), The Hollywood Reporter (July 23), TheWrap (July 23) and Variety (July 23), 2026
· Office of Rep. Laura Friedman, "Rep. Friedman Joins Sen. Schiff's Spotlight Hearing on the Film and Television Industry," March 20, 2026
· "California's film and TV tax credit is working, but federal help is needed, lawmakers say," Los Angeles Times / Tribune Content Agency, March 20, 2026
· Luminate Intelligence, "Hollywood Exodus 2026: Examining the Contraction and Globalization of U.S. Film & TV Production" (special report), May 2026 — shooting-location shifts, hub spending, incentive program counts, studio output, employment, generative AI
· "The False Promise of Film Incentives," Mackinac Center for Public Policy, April 2026
· "State-By-State Film & TV Production Tax Credit Updates for 2026," GreenSlate (updated August 21, 2026); "Film Tax Incentives by State 2026," Shamel Studio
· Restriction of Special Taxation Act, Article 25-6, Korea Law Information Center (국가법령정보센터)
· Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism press release on expanded production cost tax credits, July 2023
· "2026 tax revision bill: phased step-down for SME graduates," Korea Tax Times (한국세정신문), August 3, 2026
· "Lights, camera, action: The economic and reputational impact of film on places," City Nation Place, July 30, 2026 (MBIE, Tourism New Zealand and Leeds figures)
· Yanolja Research, "Analysis of Korea's Inbound and Outbound Tourism Performance in H1 2026," August 7, 2026
· Korea Tourism Organization, 2025 inbound visitor statistics (18,936,562)
· Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, Q2 2024 survey of inbound visitors
· Netflix, "Netflix Effect," May 2026
· Trip.com, bookings to Korea after the release of "KPop Demon Hunters" (June 20 - August 31, 2025)
· Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Korea Customs Service, 2025 K-food and K-Food+ export figures
· CatchTable and Netflix, reservation and search data for restaurants featured on "Culinary Class Wars"
· KOFICE, estimate of total Hallyu-driven exports for 2024; Hotels.com, Unpack '26 consumer survey
· Seoul Facilities Corporation 2025 shoot counts; Yeongwol County visitor figures; The Washington Post on Iseltwald
· Korean Film Council, "H1 2026 Korean Film Industry Report," July 29, 2026
· Yonhap News (August 9, 2026), MTN (August 14, 2026), ZDNet Korea (August 7, 2026), Asia Today (August 19, 2026) and Korea NGO News on the holdback debate
· Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, press release projecting a record 18.7 million inbound visitors for 2025, and Q1 and April 2026 arrival figures
· Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, analysis of foreign attendance at the March 2026 BTS concert at Gwanghwamun (secondary citation)
· BFI, Screen Business analysis of film-related tourist spending and employment; Tourism NI estimates of Game of Thrones-motivated visitors (via screen tourism statistics compilations)
· Kim, S., Kim, S. & Heo, C., "Assessment of TV drama/film production towns as a rural tourism growth engine," Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 2015
· Interview with Hwang Sun-kwon, Nine Tailed Fox, Korean Cinema Today webzine (Korean Film Council), March 2025
Notes on attribution
Quotation marks indicate wording from the original post or remarks as reported by the named outlet; unquoted passages summarize the post or the reporting. Material carried from another outlet's reporting is marked as a secondary citation.
The President's remarks were taken from the original Truth Social post.
All charts were prepared from the sources named in their captions. The only image reproduced as published is the screenshot of the Truth Social post.
Won conversions use an exchange rate of 1,400 won to the dollar.