Australia has juiced its tax incentives for foreign, mostly Hollywood movies and TV series that shoot locally.
The federal government has passed legislation to boost the 16.5 percent location to 30 percent. The near doubling of the location offset will apply to local Australian movies but with a catch. Producers must have budgets of at least AUS$20 million (US$13.3 million) for production, or AUS$1.5 million (US$1 million) per hour for a TV series.
That means mostly foreign and especially Hollywood productions will benefit from the increased location offset for blockbuster projects as Australia looks to be more competitive with rival international jurisdictions and draw more projects and employment to its shores.
“This is fantastic news for the industry. The 30 percent location offset will provide certainty for international productions, supporting a stable pipeline of work for thousands of Australian screen workers and businesses and triggering investment into new industry capacity and capabilities,” Kate Marks, CEO of Ausfilm, said in a statement Thursday.
With the offset, the country is looking to keep pace with the U.S., U.K., Canada and other top international production hubs in drawing Hollywood movies and TV series for local shoots.
Recent Australia-shot hits include Sony Pictures’ Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney rom-com Anyone but You, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Universal Pictures’ Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action comedy The Fall Guy, and Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Other films that have recently been shot in Australia include George Miller’s Furiosa: A Max Max Saga, starring native son Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy; Thor: Love and Thunder; and the Peacock miniseries adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall.