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Mass. issued a record $23 million tax credit to ‘Dexter' TV series. Insiders say it masks industry's downtown in state.
The state late last month quietly
That total stands as the highest amount in film tax credits the state's issued in a single year since the COVID-19 pandemic and the most ever outside of 2019, when projects collected nearly
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But there's often a lag, both when productions apply for the subsidies and when the state updates its data. There are often pending applications when the state releases its annual tax credit transparency report, meaning the totals for 2023 total could climb even higher. The state, for example, also reported last month that it issued $46.8 million in credits in 2022 — millions of dollars more than it
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The film and television projects themselves also often reap their tax credits years after they've decamped from Massachusetts. '
The $23 million credit it received topped the previous record of $16.1 million the state issued for a scripted series, which went to the second season of '
The largest film tax incentive the state issued in 2023 went to the widely panned superhero movie '
Those subsidies follow the $46.4 million tax credit the state issued in 2021 to the film '
Despite those substantial handouts, the industry struggled mightily in 2023 and last year. The
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New England Studios in Devens was 'essentially dead' both those years, in part due to the strikes and contract negotiations between multiple unions, said Gary Crossen, the studio's general manager.
That's since shifted, to a degree. A new television series is currently in production at New England Studios, though Crossen, citing a confidentiality agreement, declined to say what it is.
'For New England Studios, it has come back to life,' he said.
That's not the case for everyone. Ryan Cook, a Massachusetts-based location manager who worked on the Dexter series, is now part of the production of a new season, dubbed '
Cook said he once led a team of 25 people, eight of whom have since left the industry, and while more productions are on the horizon in Massachusetts, the state is losing projects to overseas and other states, where the incentives are more lucrative, he said.
'The landscape is different,' said Cook, who was among those who successfully advocated for lawmakers in 2021 to make the state's film tax credit program permanent, arguing it would inject stability into the industry in the state. 'That was the drum we were beating for 10 years. We got that win, and then we got hit with a left hook that we didn't see coming' in the form of COVID-19 and the dual strikes.
Launched in 2006,
the state's film tax program includes a 25 percent payroll credit for any project that spends more than $50,000 within Massachusetts. Under changes legislators
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There's no annual cap on the credit, and it's transferable, allowing a production company to sell
it to insurance companies, corporations, or even individuals.
Cook argued Massachusetts should revisit the contours of its package, noting
'I bet the incentive [data for productions in] 2023 and 2024 is going to be atrocious,' he said of Massachusetts' tax credit. 'Because there was little to no work.'
Matt Stout can be reached at
