Erin Lanahan The Hollywood of the East is thriving. Netflix, Paramount, and Lionsgate continue to build huge film studios in different parts of New Jersey. A new report shows that while filming production slowed down across the country, there was one exception: New Jersey. The Garden State continues to make gains in the film industry, increasing production spend and filming count. Here’s a closer look at the growing film production numbers in New Jersey and why production companies continue to choose the Garden State.
A Closer Look
The Hollywood Reporter shared that filming count in New Jersey is up 45% year over year. That’s the total volume of on-location production projects happening in a specific area during a set period. It could be anything, from TV to movies to commercial shoots.
Production spend in the state is also reportedly up 37%. In film, production spend is typically the total funds allocated to physically creating a movie, TV show, or commercial. It includes pre-production, the actual shoot, and post-production. It covers things like salaries, equipment rentals, set construction, catering, and visual effects, but usually excludes marketing and distribution.
The report cites “a surge in episodic activity” in New Jersey as to why the state is experiencing these gains. It makes sense; New Jersey not only has a mix of tax incentives, but also growing studio infrastructure and available crew. The New Jersey Girl has reported on Netflix constructing 12 soundstages at the former site of Fort Monmouth, Paramount building 1888 Studios in Bayonne, and Lionsgate taking over Great Point Studios in Newark.
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That doesn’t make New Jersey the top state in this report, but it shows the most growth. Looking at other states in the report, we learned California is still number one with nearly $1.48 billion in production spend and a filming count decline of 14%. New York is number two and saw film shoots also decline by 14%.
Overall, the United States reportedly saw a 10% decrease in filming count in the first quarter of 2026, yet production spend increased by 1%. Feature films were down 21%, and TV episode activity went up 4%.
The Tax Incentive In New Jersey
Many production companies choose to shoot their projects in New Jersey because of a tax incentive program the state runs. The tax credit program provides a 30% transferable tax credit on qualified film production expenses incurred within a 30-mile radius of New York City. It bumps up to 35% for expenses outside of that radius. Qualified expenses include crew wages, equipment, and vendor services.
Studio partners get a bonus. Companies with facilities over 250,000 square feet in New Jersey for 10+ years could receive up to a 40% credit. There are additional bonuses of 2% or 4% for meeting diversity plans.
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To be eligible for these tax credits, at least 60% of the total film production expenses must happen in New Jersey, or have over $100,000 in qualified expenses for the period shot in the state. More details on this tax program can be found on the New Jersey Economic Development Authority website.
What’s Filming In New Jersey?
Movies coming soon that were shot in New Jersey include Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi movie Disclosure Day. This was shot in various places, including Cape May County, Jersey City, Montville, and the NJIT campus in Newark. Amazon MGM’s young Sylvester Stallone biopic, I Play Rocky, comes out later this fall and was shot in Keansburg.
“In a normal world, we would have shot that movie in New York and Pennsylvania,” the film’s producer, Toby Emmerich, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We ended up shooting it in New Jersey because they had the best tax deal.”
There are dozens of other projects that were filmed in New Jersey in the last year, including Here Comes the Flood starring Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson, Bad Day starring Cameron Diaz, and Happy Gilmore 2 with Adam Sandler.
Across all of The Local Girl Media Group brands, we’re constantly posting about what’s filming in our towns and what stars are being spotted. We collected a guide to all the film shoots we saw in 2025 in Hoboken + Jersey City, as well as movies that were shot in New Jersey coming out in 2026.
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