Paramount, Amazon productions qualify for California tax incentive

Movies from Paramount Pictures and Amazon Studios are among the 22 feature film projects that have qualified for $100 million in state-funded incentives that will shoot primarily in California.

The unnamed Paramount project is expected to receive $22.4 million in tax credits, the largest award to date under a program that was expanded in 2015, according to the California Film Commission.

The commission described the film as a major feature whose budget exceeds $75 million and would employ a cast and crew of 300 individuals.

Under the program, production companies can receive a 20% to 25% credit to offset certain expenses, such as crew member salaries. Companies can then apply those credits to reduce any general tax liabilities they have with the state. (In some cases, the credits can be sold to third parties.)

Paramount declined to comment.

The untitled feature is only the second large-budget studio movie to receive tax credits from California under the state’s expanded incentive program, which previously excluded movies whose budgets exceeded $75 million. The first was Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” which is in production and was approved for a credit estimated at $18 million.

The expanded program was intended in part to draw big Hollywood films that have largely fled California for other states and countries with their own incentives.

Two Amazon movies have qualified for the latest round of credits — “Beautiful Boy,” about a father dealing with his son’s meth addiction and set to star Steve Carell; and a project with the title “Callahan.” They are receiving estimated credits of $4 million and $1.1 million, respectively. Streaming companies were ineligible for incentives under the old incentive program.

Among the round’s biggest credit winners are two Warner Bros. movies: a feature about Jessica Buchanan, the American aid worker rescued by a Navy SEAL team in Somalia in 2012, which will receive an estimated $6.2 million; and the latest version of “A Star is Born,” directed by Bradley Cooper and set to star Lady Gaga, earmarked for $7.1 million.

An untitled Universal feature is set to receive $11.6 million in credits.

Other qualifying projects include Universal’s “Marwencol,” based on the 2010 documentary about a man who builds a model World War II-era town in his backyard; and New Line’s comedy “Tag.”

The commission said the 22 productions were chosen from an applicant pool of 93 projects. It said the chosen productions are on-track to spend $800 million in-state and employ more than 4,000 cast and crew members.

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