Michelle Pfeiffer Worries Los Angeles Will No Longer Be an Industry Town: ‘You Need to Bring Back Tax Incentives’

https://variety.com/2025/biz/columns/michelle-pfeiffer-la-tax-incentives-1236378677/

29 comments

  1. Sounds like she’s getting ready to run for Mayor, if
    so she’ll be better than the one we have right now.
    Mayor Bass only thinks about her trips!

  2. It’s not a tax problem, it’s a local economic cost problem.
    The cost to hire workers is significantly higher, same issue with NYC. Economics moves to the path of least resistance.

    Other than essentially funding films with local taxpayer money- for jobs the local economy cannot support the pay scales for- you just do the whole pretending you’re in LA thing. You know, acting.

  3. As someone who lives in Vancouver, I actually prefer seeing films shot in LA. Ignoring everything else, the light is just different down south. I can immediately tell whenever a movie is shot up here because the picture ALWAYS looks off, it’s like someone in post decreased saturation and increased contrast. The image has less colour and the blacks look over pronounced.

  4. This is unfortunately a byproduct of Globalization. CA does need better film tax incentives but that doesn’t mean if/when we get them that other areas won’t ramp up their’s. CA really shit the bed on this and other areas were not stupid enough to disenfranchise the film industry. The unfortunate truth is even with robust CA film tax incentives, CA and in particular Los Angeles will be still be one of the if not the most expensive place to film worldwide- this is because everything in Los Angeles is insanely expensive, our labor rates, the cost for permits, gear, locations, gas etc.

  5. Lol or you could care less about profits and not be ghouls

  6. The ultra rich movie producers need their handouts, or else…

  7. The insurance for filming in a fiery deathscape is astronomical. 

    Imagine filming a show there where the family’s house could burn down at any moment, and then you’ve got no set. Filming being shut down for x amount of time wastes millions 

    Then it costs tariff money to buy for the show. 

    Shoot in Vancouver and you don’t get tariff charges buying for the set; and your set continues to exist.

  8. Make fewer movies that cost nine digits. A game my partner and I play is to count the number of production companies listed at the beginning of a movie.

    Red One: Reportedly cost $250 million.
    Inside Out 2 & Deadpool & Wolverine: Both have production budgets of $200 million.
    Dune: Part Two & Joker: Folia: Both cost $190 million to produce.
    Furiosa: Had a budget of $168 million.
    Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: Cost $135 million.
    Wicked Part One: Reported to have a budget of $145 million.

  9. I’m here today to say no woman has ever been more attractive than Michelle Pfieffer in Grease 2, except maybe Michelle Pfieffer in Fabulous Baker Boys.

  11. What crazy about this whole thing.

    There’s no “bring back” tax incentives. We were the last to have them and we still do.

    And you know who decides where to shoot shows? People like her husband. He says shoot in LA, we shoot in LA. No incentive needed.

  12. What she’s advocating for is akin to sports teams trying to attract cities to go halfsies with building their stadiums. It almost always is never profitable for cities. And by that, I mean the cities essentially get robbed by the teams.

  13. No we’ve given enough to Hollywood. I need a tax incentive to stay here and pay a fortune in property taxes and income taxes and sales taxes and gun taxes and ammo taxes and……Hollywood can die.

  15. The problem is the cost of living. you have to reduce housing costs SIGNIFICANTLY.

  16. Perhaps celebrities like her should speak out to get billionaires to pay their taxes.

    Is she’s so concerned that is.

  17. billions being reallocated to “the homeless”, but not helping the homeless at all in any way. Sadly, helping the homeless is another form of democrat grifting….stealing tax dollars and giving to friends and business associates. Just as Trump and Elon exposed what USAID was doing. They need tax credits, but the state is too busy overspending as it is.

  18. Dana Carvey and David Spade were talking to Rob Lowe about this on their podcast

  20. They’ve been outsourcing this part of the business for decades. Tax write off to film in Canada. Everything is cheaper there. If you were a business and had the freedom you’d do it there as well. Everyone would.

  21. It’s a cost of healthcare problem! If the US had single payer healthcare we could compete with Europe and Asia across many industries.

  22. like pro sports teams, maybe the mega rich production companies can get by without the public’s help.

  23. No.

    Large multi national corporation do not need more tax breaks.

  24. Go in front of the California legislature with your hat in hand just like Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are doing in Texas.

  25. No that’s the issue with corporations. Too many tax breaks.

  26. I’m pretty sure they were bringing back tax incentives before the fires broke out. Like the months leading up to it in pretty sure it was a thing or going to be a thing.

  28. Vegas will be taking a lot of LA’s and California’s business. Celebs will live there instead.

  29. Yes that’s exactly what the American people need, forget LA homelessness let’s hand out more of our hard earned taxpaying dollars to Hollywood executives in order to “incentivize them”.

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