Much of “Rustin” was shot in Allegheny County. The manager of Cinelease Studios says more productions would come to Pennsylvania if the tax credit was higher.
PITTSBURGH —
Much of the Oscar-nominated movie “Rustin” was shot in Warrendale, Allegheny County. Names of Pittsburgh neighbors are in the credits.
“Production office staff, the art department, all the construction workers — and that is a whole subsection of people as well because then there’s a paint department,” said Paul Haller, Pittsburgh studio manager for Cinelease Studios.
“Somewhere in the ballpark of about $2 billion spent locally, and those are dollars that aren’t going back to California or going into an actor’s pocket or sent over to foreign seas,” Cinelease general manager Gannon Murphy said. “Those are dollars that are going into local dry cleaners, those are dollars that are going into diners, those are dollars that are going into lumber mills, right? So it’s materials and it’s people, and that’s a significant amount of money.”Cinelease has locations all over the country. Murphy says more productions would come to Pennsylvania if the tax credit was higher.
In April 2021, when Gov. Josh Shapiro was the state attorney general, he posted on social media that Pennsylvania’s film tax credit should be unlimited, or uncapped, like it is in Georgia, where the movie business is booming.
In 2022, Hollywood spent $200 million in Pennsylvania. Hollywood spent 22 times that amount in Georgia.
Source: Pennsylvania film tax credit below surrounding states
