New York’s film and television rebound is increasingly visible in the places where production becomes public: soundstages, blocked-off streets, working trucks, neighborhood businesses and the city permit office. The numbers now point to a substantial upswing. State production spending reached nearly $1.06 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 57% year over year, while the number of projects rose 19%. New York City had processed 4,311 filming permits by this point in 2026, a 27% increase from the previous year.
That is a major change from the recent downturn. Rafael Espinal, New York City’s media and entertainment commissioner, says permit activity stood at roughly half of its pre-pandemic level when he took office in February. The recovery is being driven by the state’s updated incentive program, but the more revealing story is that a production hub is not built on a tax credit alone. A film or series needs crews, stages, vendors, accessible locations, public-agency coordination and a permitting process that does not turn each shooting day into an avoidable risk.
For a business that often chooses where to work according to budgets and schedules, that operational layer can be as decisive as the headline percentage on an incentive package.
The incentive at the center of the surge
New York’s program offers a 30% refundable tax credit, supported by an annual $800 million allocation, alongside enhanced incentives for post-production and above-the-line costs. A refundable credit is important language: rather than merely lowering a company’s tax bill, a refundable credit can provide a payment when the credit exceeds the tax owed. That makes its value easier for an eligible production to factor into financing and location decisions.
“Above the line” is industry shorthand for senior creative and producing personnel, commonly including actors, directors, writers and producers. “Post-production” covers work undertaken after principal photography, such as editing and related finishing work. Including or improving incentives around those areas makes a location more attractive to productions looking to keep a broader portion of their workflow in one place, rather than treating a city as a brief stop for location filming.
The 2025 budget amendments signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul appear to have arrived at a valuable moment for the state’s studio ecosystem. Wildflower Studios in Astoria opened in 2024 amid reduced studio spending and the aftereffects of two major labor strikes. It is now described as busier than ever. The facility was co-founded by Adam Gordon, Robert De Niro and Raphael De Niro and uses modular soundstages, while its site design also addresses the very unglamorous realities of production freight.
One example is a large rotating metal platform that allows 53-foot trucks to turn out of the property without elaborate multi-point maneuvers. The Teamsters suggested the improvement. It is a small but useful illustration of what production infrastructure means in practice. A soundstage may be the glamorous asset, but dependable truck movement, loading access and worker-informed planning can save time in an industry where a delayed setup affects an entire crew.
Concrete local impact, not just a studio map pin
The clearest single project figure comes from The Devil Wears Prada 2. Its decision to remain in New York supported more than 1,400 local cast and crew members and involved 550 local vendors. Over a 46-day shoot, the production generated $67.9 million in total economic activity and $45.8 million in local wages, based on figures from Empire State Development.
Those details matter because “production spending” can sound abstract. On an active shoot, the work extends beyond performers and executives. Local electricians, carpenters, drivers and makeup artists are among the people attached to the production economy. Businesses providing supplies and services also participate. The benefit, in other words, is intended to spread through a practical supply chain rather than remain contained inside a studio gate.
New York’s active slate illustrates the breadth of the activity. The Gilded Age, American Horror Story and an upcoming Exorcist film are among the productions associated with the city’s current stage and location activity. The renewed momentum also reaches music videos, commercials and short-form online work: Cardi B’s “Ah Ha” video and a Knicks-themed Nike commercial directed by Josh Safdie were highlighted alongside social series including SubwayTakes and Are You Okay?.
That smaller end of the market should not be treated as an afterthought. Major studio projects make headlines, but a city that can streamline permissions for leaner crews and recognize emerging creators may create more consistent work across a wider range of budgets. It also leaves room for formats that do not resemble a conventional network drama or theatrical feature. The underlying principle is straightforward: a durable local screen economy requires more than occasional blockbusters.
Why location support can make or break a credit
Espinal’s office has emphasized what it calls “white-glove service”: answering production questions and helping solve logistical problems. It is easy to dismiss that phrase as civic marketing, but location production is an unusually coordination-heavy undertaking. A shoot can involve police, transit authorities, property owners, neighborhood businesses, residents and multiple city agencies. A strong financial incentive cannot magically clear an intersection, solve a traffic plan or tell a production which agency needs to sign off.
A Quiet Place Part III makes the point. The film’s alien-invasion sequence required a Manhattan Bridge shutdown and coordination involving the NYPD, the MTA and the Port Authority. The shoot also drew opposition from a community group concerned about its temporary effects on local business activity. Those businesses were compensated by the production, but the episode demonstrates an unavoidable tension in location filmmaking: a city benefits economically from hosting large shoots while residents and nearby businesses experience the disruption immediately.
There is no universal formula that removes that friction. What officials can do is communicate the scope of the work, coordinate responsibly and acknowledge that “economic impact” does not make a road closure feel painless in the moment. In this case, Espinal visited the set and released a video making the longer-term case for the production, including the possibility that viewers may later visit the location shown on screen.
That tourism argument rests on something New York understands well: the city is often part of the entertainment itself. The West Village stoop associated with Carrie Bradshaw remains a destination for visitors. Doug Steiner, founder of Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios, frames the value of on-screen visibility as a type of product placement, with New York City itself as the product.
It is a persuasive argument, but it should be understood as an additional potential return, not a substitute for measuring direct employment and spending. The more immediate evidence lies in payroll, local vendors and ongoing utilization of stages and locations. Tourism value is harder to isolate, even when famous filmed locations clearly become part of popular culture.
New York can be New York — and can play elsewhere
New York’s visual identity remains one of its competitive advantages. Robert De Niro argues that the city cannot truly be replicated somewhere else, a view shaped by films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, all shot in New York. Productions frequently use other cities as stand-ins, and Toronto is currently serving as Queens in FX’s Adults and as Manhattan for Sarah Polley’s forthcoming The Bell Jar adaptation. Yet the original city retains a particular value when the story needs its actual streetscape and cultural texture.
At the same time, New York is not limiting itself to stories set within its borders. Rhoda Glickman, Empire State Development’s film and arts chief, has said the state is happy to “cheat” other locations when appropriate, including Washington, D.C. This is a pragmatic position. A production center that only serves stories explicitly set in New York would leave potential stage, crew and vendor capacity unused. The goal is not simply to preserve authenticity for New York-set stories; it is to give projects reasons to spend their money and hire their workers in New York.
That competition is international and relentless. Productions have moved to London, Canada and Budapest in search of lower costs and stronger incentives. States are competing as well. Los Angeles, still a global entertainment center, recorded its weakest non-pandemic year for location shooting in 2025, while California works to strengthen incentives and production policy remains politically salient. A bipartisan federal tax incentive is also moving through Congress and has support from both Robert and Raphael De Niro.
New York’s 2026 figures therefore represent momentum, not a permanently won contest. Incentives can be changed, production budgets can contract and another jurisdiction can improve its offer. What New York can control most directly is whether its financial program works alongside actual capacity: available stages, skilled local labor, a functioning vendor network and public processes that treat shoots as complicated civic events rather than paperwork to be endured.
What the boom means for viewers and workers
For audiences, a more active production environment means New York is likely to remain both a real setting and a flexible production base for film, television, advertising and online series. It can mean more city-specific texture on screen, but it also means some productions will use New York to portray somewhere entirely different.
For workers, the most meaningful signal is not the number of celebrity projects on a permit list. It is whether the increased activity sustains repeat employment for local departments and service businesses. The figures around The Devil Wears Prada 2 offer a useful snapshot of the scale involved, while the citywide rise in projects suggests a broader recovery is underway.
For New Yorkers who encounter cones, trucks and closed blocks, the trade-off remains real. Transparent planning and responsive local coordination are not optional extras; they are part of the deal that allows a production hub to coexist with neighborhoods.
New York’s tax credit may supply the financial oxygen, as Gordon puts it. But the city’s advantage will be determined by the whole operating system around it: the people who build sets, drive trucks, manage permits, solve public-space conflicts and turn a complex day of filming into work that can actually happen.
For more on the changing production landscape and labor conditions behind screen work, see our coverage of VFX workers securing protections around AI, pay and rest.
