Movies help local economy

Who doesn't love a good movie?

But even better, from a city's perspective, is having a movie filmed locally, because it pumps big bucks into the local economy.

Last month a film crew was in a Chandler office complex, filming Middle Man, staring Luke Wilson. It was such a big production that the parking lot at the Desert Schools Coyote Center ice hockey rink was needed to hold all the personal vehicles for the extras and staff.

And they'll be filming in various locations until the end of the month.

It's estimated that the 80 regular crew members and dozens of extras involved in Middle Man resulted in as much as $100,000 a day being pumped into the local economy.

"We market greater Phoenix to the production companies to come out here because, like any other industry, it means jobs and business," said Phillip Bradstock, the city of Phoenix Film Office program officer.

Bradstock pointed out that for every movie or commercial there are staff that need hotel rooms, restaurants to eat at, caterers to feed the crew on the set, trucks and cars to rent, office supplies to purchase, props that have to be bought or built, even clothes that fly off the racks.

"They spend thousands and thousands of dollars on wardrobes," Bradstock said.

And that turns into cash registers clinging for local businesses.

The film industry also means jobs, because to qualify for Arizona tax breaks, half the crew a production company uses must be local residents. That means jobs for gripes, lighting and sound engineers, camera and boom operators, and others.

Arizona provides a 30 percent tax credit when a production company spends more than $1 million on Arizona people or materials, Bradstock said.

The opening scenes of Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, put Phoenix on the map, but Arizona has always been popular as a movie backdrop. From Monument Valley, where director John Ford filmed his classic westerns, to a Mesa convenience store where Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure began, to an unopened stretch of the Loop 202 that doubled as a Saudi highway in The Kingdom, Arizona has the variety of scenery and style to meet most production needs.

That's probably why in 2008 there was a 65 percent jump in job growth as a result of 546 projects, from photo shoots to commercials to full-length movies, in and around Phoenix. According to Bradstock, that resulted in an economic impact of $23.9 million.