Atlanta Plans to Increase Soundstage and Production Facilities
Georgia’s film and TV business has been booming ever since 2008, when it began offering a 20% transferable tax credit with a 10% bump for including the state’s peach logo in the credits. In recent years, it’s hosted “The Exorcist: Believer” and numerous big Marvel projects, including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and the upcoming Disney+ series “Ironheart,” as well as the Netflix hit “Stranger Things.”
As the number of productions has grown, so has the infrastructure to support it. According to an April 2023 report by FilmLA Research, Georgia already had 3 million square feet of soundstage space by the end of 2021 — up from 2 million a year earlier — including Trilith Studios (formerly Pinewood Atlanta) and EU/Screen Gems Studios. That put it ahead of New York (2.8 million square feet) and second only to California (6.2 million square feet) in the U.S. And the number keeps growing.
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This month, Great Point Studios is scheduled to open a 500,000-square-foot purpose-built facility featuring 12 soundstages in Douglas County, 20 minutes outside of midtown Atlanta. It will hit the ground running with a pair of anchor tenants, Lionsgate and Spain’s Mediapro, which have made 12- and 10-year commitments, respectively.
“When we looked at Atlanta as a market, we realized that about 55% of the stages there are really poorly reconfigured warehouses,” says Great Point Studios CEO Robert Halmi. “And that’s not the kind of purpose-built stages that people are really looking for.”
Great Point’s competition includes another new purpose-built facility, Electric Owl Studios, opened in June 2023. Located just northwest of Atlanta in Decatur, the 312,000-square-foot, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-certified complex bills itself as “the greenest studio on earth.”
“The talent pool in Atlanta is amazing and it’s a progressive city, so that combination really makes it an attractive place to be,” says Thai Randolph, CEO of Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, which is set to open a production complex in Atlanta in November to service its Georgia-based productions, including its “Die Hart” streaming series, as well as its podcast and branded content business.
Multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry has long been a major presence in the city. In 2019, he opened the second iteration of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta on 330 acres of the former military base Fort McPherson. Its previous location, now known as Pangaea Studios, is owned by Voltron Global, which has updated the facility, adding an LED volume to facilitate virtual production, and branched out into live events, hosting the three-day Revolt World music festival that attracted more than 30,000 people in September. Earlier this year, the company launched a production arm to self-finance, package and produce film and
TV projects.
“With our technology, we give a solution to create in a more cost-effective way without sacrificing the creativity,” says Voltron Global CEO Steve Greenberg.
Production spending in Georgia hit a record $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2022, but it dropped to $4.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, which closed at the end of June. It’s possible some producers were spooked when the state’s Senate Finance Committee voted to cap the incentive at $900 million and make the credit non-transferable in March 2022. Fortunately for the Georgia production community, the committee’s bill was pulled before it could be voted on by the full senate. Still, there’s no telling when and if the issue will arise again. But Michael Hahn, who co-founded Electric Owl with fellow former Third Rail Studios executive Dan Rosenfelt, is not too worried.
“If there is a cap at some point, Georgia’s still going to be the most affordable production hub just because the cost of stages and the cost of living are lower here,” says Han.
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