The Numbers Behind Jersey’s Film Boom: $430 Million and a No. 2 Ranking

MOUNT LAUREL — When a new industry takes root in a state, you can usually spot it two ways. The romantic version is the one with the ribbon-cuttings and the celebrity sightings. The version I care about is the one on the spreadsheet — the jobs, the spending, the tax credits, the square footage. And right now, the spreadsheet on New Jersey’s film industry tells a story even the skeptics should sit up for.

A No. 2 ranking, nationwide

Start with the ranking that landed this week. A new study placed New Jersey second in the entire country for the addition of film and television jobs, with in-state industry employment climbing roughly 34 percent. Second. Not second in the region — second in the nation. And the driver behind that number is the kind of thing that quietly reshapes a local economy: regional crew members are increasingly choosing to work productions here at home rather than commuting into New York City. Every one of those decisions keeps a paycheck, and the spending that comes with it, on the Jersey side of the river.

The engine: a $430 million program

The engine underneath all this is the state’s film and digital media tax incentive program, now running at $430 million a year and ranked among the most robust in North America. The mechanics matter, so here they are in plain terms: productions can claim up to 35 percent in transferable tax credits on their expenses, 30 percent on in-zone spending, and bonuses of up to another 4 percent tied to workforce development. That last piece is the part a business reader should underline. The state isn’t just paying studios to show up — it’s paying more when they hire and train local people. That’s incentive design aimed at building a workforce, not renting a backdrop.

From incentive market to ecosystem

And the productions are responding. In-state production spending hit an estimated $834 million in 2024, blowing past the previous record of $701 million set in 2022. A CBRE report last month concluded that New Jersey has crossed an important line — it has graduated from an “incentive-driven market,” where productions come only for the tax break, into a “full-scale production ecosystem,” where the infrastructure itself is now a reason to stay. The soundstage inventory is projected to triple by 2028.

The question for a South Jersey entrepreneur isn’t whether the boom is real. It’s whether they’ve figured out how to sell into it.Mason Carter

Why South Jersey should care

For South Jersey business owners, the instinct might be to file all this under North Jersey news — Fort Monmouth, Newark, Bayonne are not exactly down the shore. That would be a mistake. An industry this size doesn’t stay in its lane. A film economy runs on an enormous supply chain of vendors most people never think about: lumber and equipment rental, catering and lodging, transportation, security, dry cleaning, props sourced from local shops. When a production ecosystem matures in a state this compact, the ripple reaches contractors and caterers and small suppliers well beyond the studio’s ZIP code.

The permanent asterisk

I’ll keep my clear eyes on. Incentive-fueled industries carry a permanent asterisk — a program funded by the Legislature can be trimmed by the Legislature, and a soundstage built on tax credits is exposed to every future budget fight. Booms have busted before. But the distinction CBRE drew is the one that matters: a market propped up purely by incentives is fragile, while an ecosystem with a billion dollars of private steel already in the ground has roots. New Jersey looks increasingly like the second kind. And in this economy, an industry putting up real buildings and adding real jobs at the second-fastest clip in the country is not a story any business owner in this state can afford to ignore.

Based on reporting from ROI-NJ, NJBIZ, New Jersey Business Magazine, and CBRE’s 2026 Tri-State Film & Television Report. The Neighborhood Gazette covers South Jersey at neighborhoodgazette.town.