Written by on Mar 22, 2012. Posted in Incentive News

Raleigh Studios Detroit facing decline after Michigan film incentives change

Raleigh Studios Detroit faces an uncertain future in the aftermath of last year’s dramatic cut in funding to Michigan’s state filming incentives. The studio has already defaulted on one USD630,000 interest payment this year and may have to do so again in August.

Last year Michigan’s annual film fund was massively reduced to just USD25 million a year, taking it out of contention as a location option for many big-budget studio productions. Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Robopcalypse was one of the high-profile projects to pull out of a Michigan shoot when the incentive change was finalised.

The film incentives were passed and backed by strong bipartisan support, so with that as the background for the law, we did not anticipate the magnitude of the change.

Steven Lemberg, Raleigh Studios

Steven Lemberg is Chief Financial Officer at Raleigh Studios and spoke to the Free Press news outlet: “The film incentives were passed and backed by strong bipartisan support, so with that as the background for the law, we did not anticipate the magnitude of the change.

“Once the change [in incentives] occurred last February, there was no turning back with the studio as construction was nearly complete.”

The local filming industries have been rallying to have the film fund increased again. New Governor Rick Snyder doesn’t support the cause, however, and believes the changes were necessary to help balance Michigan’s budget.