California is driving Paramount out. Let Georgia be Hollywood of the South.

Georgia should do the opposite. And our candidates for governor should say so now.

The states Ellison is reportedly weighing for Paramount’s relocation are Georgia, Texas and Tennessee. The Peach State has what is perhaps the strongest claim among those options.

CNN was founded in Atlanta in 1980 by Ted Turner, the network that first capitalized on the public’s desire for a 24-hour news cycle. But heritage isn’t the pitch, infrastructure is.

Film and TV downturn hit Georgia hard

Credit: Hand

Credit: Hand

Georgia has ample soundstage space, placing second in the country by volume, with 4.1 million square feet and climbing.

Trilith Studios near Fayetteville, where much of the Marvel universe and the latest “Superman” were filmed, is the largest purpose-built studio complex in the nation.

Tyler Perry Studios anchors southwest Atlanta on the former Fort McPherson grounds. We have the stages, the crews and two decades of experience running productions at the highest level. A company looking for a place to land wouldn’t be starting from scratch here. It would be plugging into a place that already has all the infrastructure it needs to thrive.

Still, the need for Georgia to fight for Paramount to relocate here is real. Film and television activity in Georgia fell from $4.4 billion in 2022 to $2.6 billion in 2024 after the industry-wide slump and the 2023 strikes. The business is contracting nationally.

While it has hit us hard, we’ve more then held our own. But that’s no reason to be complacent. The pie is shrinking, and the states that will win are those that will fight for a bigger slice of what’s left.

Consider what’s actually on the table. This isn’t another film shoot passing through for six weeks. It’s the prospect of a permanent corporate and production home.

If the Warner Bros. merger closes, this will be a mega-studio that is ready to commit to releasing 30 films a year. A commitment on that scale means steady, high-wage jobs, a deep vendor and supplier base, and the ancillary tax revenue that comes with an anchor employer rather than a transient one. It’s exactly the kind of permanence that would keep the bottom from falling out of an industry that just lost nearly half its activity here in two years.

Turn state into a permanent entertainment anchor

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Neither gubernatorial nominee, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms nor Republican Rick Jackson, needs to take a position on whether the Paramount-Warner merger should go through. The relevant point for our state is narrower and, frankly, easier. Ellison has signaled the company could move regardless of the outcome of the anti-trust lawsuit, because the logic is about cost, not litigation.

So, the question for both candidates is simply whether they will advocate for keeping Georgia’s film incentives stable and competitive. None of this requires Georgia to engage in a reckless bidding war. Our incentives are already among the most competitive in the nation. The promise by our next governor to fight to keep them that way is what will make Georgia a contender for becoming the Hollywood of the South.

True, those tax incentives aren’t cheap; they cost the state over a billion in tax revenue a year. That high cost is precisely why lawmakers considered capping them in 2024. It is perfectly reasonable for people to disagree on whether these tax credits pay for themselves.

But the matter at hand offers Georgia the chance to land a permanent corporate anchor, a categorically different prize from the ad hoc productions we’ve relied on in the past. This would be a prize that offers the state tens of thousands of novel jobs and a tax base that will persist year after year, not one that leaves when the shoot wraps.

This is a rare and concrete chance for Georgia to anchor an industry in the state for a generation, and we can’t wait for the election to make our move. Bottoms and Jackson should each tell voters, today, whether they’ll fight to make Georgia the home this company is looking for.

Nicholas B. Creel, M.A., J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., is associate professor of business law, director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and pre-law adviser to the College of Business at Georgia College & State University.

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