According to a new industry report, Hollywood studios and unions are backing a proposed federal film incentive aimed at bringing more production and jobs back to the United States. For an industry built on spectacle, Hollywood has found itself facing a rather unglamorous problem: where the cameras go next. With tax incentives higher than ever, productions increasingly weigh the financial advantages of shooting outside the US, while American crews contend with fewer opportunities at home.

Now, Hollywood is no longer merely asking where movies should be made; it is asking whether America can afford to keep making them.

The Motion Picture Association and entertainment unions are promoting a proposed federal film and television incentive after an MPA-commissioned report projected that the measure could create approximately 143,500 production jobs annually. The study, prepared by Olsberg SPI, estimates that a 20% federal credit on qualifying production labor costs could double US film and television production by 2032.

The proposal has attracted bipartisan support. Representatives Laura Friedman, a Democrat, and Brian Jack, a Republican, has joined MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin and SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin in presenting the case.

The numbers are intended to make the economic argument difficult to ignore. The report projects US production spending could reach $34.7 billion by 2032 with the incentive, compared with $16.9 billion without it. It also estimates an additional $125.3 billion in production spending cumulatively through 2035.

Netflix’s '13 Going On 30' Reboot Secures Hefty California Tax Credit, Signals Large-Scale Shoot

Behind the tax-credit language is a much larger fight over jobs, competitiveness and where the next American production will actually roll the camera.

The MPA and unions are presenting the incentive as a response to an increasingly international production economy. Other countries already use financial incentives to attract American productions, while individual US states compete against one another through their own programs. The proposed federal credit would add another layer to that competition rather than leaving American productions to make the calculation state by state.

The proposed legislation has not yet been formally introduced, although supporters expect legislative text this month and hope Congress could act before the end of the year. President Donald Trump endorsed the concept last month, giving the campaign an additional political boost.

The industry's pitch is ultimately straightforward: production spending creates work far beyond the actors appearing on screen. Crews, technicians, electricians and other craftspeople depend on those shoots, as do businesses surrounding them. Whether Congress accepts that case remains unresolved, but Hollywood has clearly decided that waiting for productions to return on their own is no longer a strategy.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Receives $165 Million in 2025 Compensation Amid Merger Uncertainty

What do you think of Hollywood superpowers coming together to boost production in the US? Let us know in the comments.