North Carolina's film industry is finally getting a financial lifeline after months of frozen funding left Wilmington crews wondering if their next paycheck would come from home or from a studio lot in Charleston. Top Republican leaders in the state legislature pledged a one-time $31 million cash infusion for the state's Film and Entertainment Grant Program during a news conference at Cinespace Studios in Wilmington on Tuesday, October 6, with a formal vote in the General Assembly planned for mid-November.
The pledge, first detailed by Port City Daily, was organized by Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee and Rep. Ted Davis, with backing from Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall. As reported by WSOC-TV, the additional funding for Hanover County-area projects is expected to arrive as a tax rebate made available by the end of 2027.
State lawmakers confirmed in a formal letter to local officials that the new money will be legally directed to prioritize qualifying film and television productions in New Hanover County and the surrounding southeastern counties, according to WHQR. New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Dane Scalise had actively lobbied legislative leadership to secure targeted support for the Wilmington film hub, the station reports.
How a Budget Cap Froze the Grant Pipeline
The relief comes after a rough stretch for the industry. A mid-2026 state budget directive enforced a hard $31 million annual cap on the Film and Entertainment Grant Program, which the Department of Commerce administers, freezing new grant awards and creating a backlog of more than $106 million in multi-year production commitments that threatened to halt new allocations through 2029, the same WHQR report notes. Commerce officials had assumed lawmakers would appropriate supplemental funds whenever project commitments exceeded the baseline yearly budget, but that buffer never materialized, and new grant approvals ground to a halt.
That freeze put real productions at risk. Outer Banks co-creator Jonas Pate warned state leaders in August that he was scouting Charleston, South Carolina, locations for a new prequel series because of the funding uncertainty, echoing his 2019 decision to relocate Outer Banks filming to South Carolina after the passage of House Bill 2, per the same WHQR account. Pate reportedly attended the October announcement to express relief that the state was reopening for business.
Sean Yaple, a North Carolina film crewmember, told WSOC-TV he has seen plenty of ups and downs in the industry over the years and hopes it is now on an uphill swing. He added that the industry still needs a long-term solution and lasting stability, not just another one-time fix.
What the Grant Program Actually Covers
Under statutory guidelines revised in June 2025, North Carolina's Film and Entertainment Grant Program provides a 25 percent cash rebate on qualifying in-state expenses, capped at $20 million per feature film and $25 million per television series season, following a post-production audit, according to the NC Department of Commerce. Projects must meet minimum in-state spending thresholds of $1.5 million for feature films or $500,000 per episode for television series to qualify.
Beyond the state rebate, productions operating in New Hanover County also receive an exemption and full refund on the local 13 percent combined sales and room occupancy tax once an individual or production maintains 90 consecutive days of lodging, per the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. All occupancy taxes paid during those initial 90 days are refunded once the threshold is met.
A Industry Still Below Its Peak
Film and television productions generated $185.5 million in direct in-state spending across 38 projects in 45 North Carolina counties in 2025, creating more than 7,000 job opportunities for local crew, talent, and extras, according to WCNC. That figure marked the fourth-highest annual spending total since the state established its current grant rebate model in 2015, though it remains well off the historical peak of $409 million recorded in 2021, before spending settled at $302 million in 2024. Altogether, the program has brought more than $1 billion in direct spending to the state over the past decade.
Major productions anchored in North Carolina during 2024 and 2025 included Season 2 of MrBeast's Beast Games, Season 23 of Top Chef, Season 2 of The Hunting Wives, and feature films including Roofman and Bad Counselors, WCNC reported. The Hunting Wives generated significant spending in the Charlotte area before incentive caps sparked concerns over future seasons.
Much of the industry's infrastructure runs through Cinespace Wilmington, the 50-acre campus with 10 soundstages and 152,000 square feet of stage space on North 23rd Street that was originally built in the 1980s by producer Dino De Laurentiis and acquired by global studio operator Cinespace Studios in September 2023, as Hoodline previously reported. The facility served as the backdrop for the state leaders' funding announcement, underscoring its role as the major industrial infrastructure for television and film production in coastal North Carolina.
What Comes Next
The $31 million injection still depends on a formal General Assembly vote scheduled for mid-November, and lawmakers have signaled possible policy changes, while their letter called for assessing internal protocols and procedures to ensure lawful fund allocation, per the Port City Daily report. For now, the announcement represents a politically negotiated stopgap designed to keep Cinespace Wilmington and regional crew members working through the current fiscal year.
Industry leaders and crew members like Yaple continue to call for permanent, long-term statutory stability rather than another one-time patch, so that North Carolina can stay competitive with neighboring production centers such as Georgia and South Carolina.
