The film industry in Wilmington has encountered a slowdown, and it’s uncertain when things will pick back up.
While the state has its own film incentive, the slowdown has affected the number of projects being shot in the area, and more attractive incentives offered by other countries have also played a role in the downturn in Wilmington.
In addition, between 2019 and 2023, streaming industry revenue grew by roughly 150%, but between 2023 and 2028, it’s only expected to grow by 30%, according to projections by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The streaming industry’s presence has also caused networks to lose advertising money, and many streaming services are working to figure out how to generate more revenue.
Speaking on the current state of the film industry in Wilmington, Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, acknowledged its current pace but added that it’s not a problem that only applies to Wilmington.
“It’s very slow right now, but it is mirroring the nationwide industry,” he said. “It’s not a unique problem.”
When addressing the slowdown and how it related to areas other than Wilmington, he mentioned how the downturn has affected Atlanta’s film output, explaining that they would typically have more than triple the number of projects they’ve got right now. He also added that film activity in Los Angeles is slow too.
“It’s just slow everywhere across the country right now,” Griffin said. “So, the good thing for us is we’re not alone in this. It’s just not a unique problem that we got to figure out how to solve in North Carolina.”
Chris Crowder, head of client services and operations in the Southeast United States for Cinespace, which has a campus on North 23rd Street in Wilmington, said in an email, “Contractions in the global production landscape have created a decline compared to prior years. Wilmington continues to be an attractive destination for filmmakers due to our exceptional crews and diverse locations.”
Some filming has come to Wilmington in 2025.
“This year we’ve had an independent film and broadcast series pilot film on the lot, and we’re in active conversations for new series that have been greenlit to go into production and considering Wilmington,” Crowder said.
Kirk Englebright, president of Dark Horse Stages, wrote in an email that multiple variables have contributed to the slowdown. Like Griffin, he also noted the impact of COVID, strikes and the streaming service industry’s ups and downs, adding the wildfires in Los Angeles as another factor.
Englebright was referencing the 2023 Writers Guild of America and the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union strikes. Both strikes affected production activity in Wilmington.
Before that, the global COVID pandemic led to the launch of several streaming services.
“Everybody was at home, and so they were hungry,” Englebright said. “They had an appetite for production, and so a lot of TV shows were being made, TV movies (and) streaming services.”
At the inception of these streaming services, the companies were measuring their success based on the number of subscribers they’d attracted, Griffin said. But as time has gone on, he said, those same companies have shifted to measuring their success by revenue.
And revenue, he said, is down.
“So, where a lot of streaming services used to produce maybe 10-12 episodes for a series, now they’re talking about doing maybe eight episodes for a series,” Griffin said.
Whereas streaming services used to have more leeway with budgets and what they could spend on projects, they’re now being questioned on everything they spend, according to Griffin. They’re also being told, he said, to cut budgets and scripts since they’re measuring things by revenue now.
Griffin said he’s unsure how long the current slowdown will last.
“We still seem to be down in a valley right now, and nobody’s really seen any upward trend that gives them hope right now,” he said.
Griffin said historically, film was always considered to be inflation proof. Whenever there were recessions, he said, the box office would thrive. But now, he asserted, people are saying that it’s too costly to go to the movies.
And as for streaming services, he said that people with multiple streaming platforms are going to start trying to figure out where to cut subscriptions.
In the meantime, film incentives seem to be paying off overseas.
“It’s slow in the U.S. right now,” Griffin said. “However, internationally, production is relatively busy … There’s a lot of production going on in Europe right now. There’s a lot of production going on in Australia, and it’s a combination of some very good incentives that they have recently enacted, plus the exchange rates.”
Englebright said he’s hopeful for a busy second half of the year in Wilmington.
North Carolina’s current film incentive caps the per-project grant at $15 million for television series per season, $7 million for feature-length films and $250,000 for commercials. The state also offers a 25% rebate on qualifying expenses and purchases made by productions while they’re in the state, and this rebate is funded through the N.C. Film and Entertainment Grant.
“We remain committed to advocating for ways to maintain and increase North Carolina’s competitive edge in this ever-changing marketplace and encouraged when legislators recognize the value of our industry and champion its growth,” Crowder said. “Their support is critical to ensuring that Wilmington and North Carolina continue to thrive in the global entertainment landscape.”
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