Las Vegas looks to join Atlanta as the next film production hotspot while California tries to combat Hollywood’s slump

The effort to provide up to $95 million in tax breaks to Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery to create a new film production facility on the outskirts of Vegas did not receive sufficient legislative support earlier this year. But more than a dozen labor unions are pushing to revive the proposal during a special session expected next month.

“We believe that if we can get the public behind us, we will be able to get legislators to understand the big change this can bring to Southern Nevada,” said Tommy White, business manager and treasurer of the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 872 in Las Vegas.

Labor unions have formed a political action committee called Nevada Jobs Now, which has raised more than $1 million to use in digital, email and some television ads, White said. The production companies behind the project say it will create 19,000 jobs in the construction field.

If the unions succeed, Las Vegas would compete with cities like Atlanta, where the movie industry has thrived for more than a decade thanks to more generous tax breaks. Meanwhile, California recently revamped its tax incentive programs to combat a multi-year downward trend in Hollywood film production.

Production companies won’t come to Las Vegas if they don’t get the tax incentives, according to David O’Reilly, CEO of Howard Hughes Holdings, the developer of the proposal called Summerlin Studios. The project will include 10 movie theaters, hotels and a medical center and will be part of a master-planned neighborhood in West Las Vegas.

“There would be no reason for Sony and Warner to film in Nevada when they can get tax breaks in 20 other states or around the world,” he said. “They need to bring their production to where they have the best economic deal, and we’re just trying to make Nevada competitive with everyone else.”

To be eligible for the tax credits, $400 million must be spent to build a studio and $1.8 billion must be spent to build the mixed-use development for shops and restaurants, O’Reilly said. Sony and Warner Bros. will have to… Spending $4.5 billion over 15 years. He said they would be eligible for tax credits after the studio is built and filming begins.

Attracting movie fans to Vegas

The proposal comes as Las Vegas continues to see a decline in tourism. Between June 2024 and June 2025, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported an 11.3% decline in visitors.

White and other supporters argue that movie studios would not only provide jobs and revenue, but also attract tourists.

“With movie studios, you can bring in a whole different type of tourist,” White said, likening it to how major sports teams attract visitors. “You’re not just bringing in the person who’s coming to go to a gambling resort.”

Georgia has seen more tourists wanting to visit the scenes where movies like “The Hunger Games” and “Forrest Gump” were filmed, said Stephen Weissenecker, an Atlanta attorney who has been involved in Georgia’s movie tax credit program since its inception in 2008.

Dubbed the “Hollywood of the South,” metro Atlanta has become a ubiquitous backdrop for mega-projects, including Marvel movies and Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Its program has supported thousands of jobs and created many thriving studios. But it is expensive, as in 2024 the country was expected to provide $1.35 billion in loans that year alone.

The state averages 17 cents in tax revenue for every dollar spent in the state, according to Karlian Patrick, an assistant professor at Georgia State University who conducts audits of the state’s tax credit programs.

Patrick said Georgia has seen a significant increase in productive activity and an increase in jobs, although not all of them are permanent, full-time jobs.

The State Employees Union argues against the proposal

Some do not see the benefit of granting tax breaks to movie studios.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a union representing thousands of state employees, joined other Nevada organizations this week in sending a letter to the governor urging him not to include the film tax credit proposal in the upcoming special session. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo says he will summon lawmakers back to D.C. before the end of the years, but it is not yet clear what issues lawmakers will address.

They say the project is “fiscally irresponsible and politically indefensible” and would generate only $0.52 in tax revenue for every $1 in credit, citing a May 2025 report commissioned by the state.

“Every dollar we keep in a corporate grant is a dollar we can’t put toward rainy day preparedness, public education, health care, wildfire mitigation, housing, and the essential services that Nevadans depend on when times get tough,” the organizations wrote in the letter.

The state should prioritize public services for people with mental health problems, said Jared Klausner, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Campus in Las Vegas and an AFSCME member.

Klausner wants Sony and Warner Bros. By building a film studio facility and creating more jobs for Nevadans, but “if they’re going to do it at the expense of public services and money that should be allocated to state employees, that doesn’t really solve any problems.”