What would Las Vegas gain from having a movie studio?

Mark Wahlberg has made two movies in Las Vegas — “The Family Plan” for Apple TV+ and “Flight Risk,” which topped the box office the weekend of Jan. 24-26 — and he’s hoping to make many more here.

That goal would be much more attainable with a movie studio in the valley, an idea he’s been floating since moving to Summerlin in August 2022.

During a Zoom chat to promote “Flight Risk,” the actor and producer confirmed that he “kind of started” the process by suggesting Las Vegas should become Hollywood 2.0. “For me,” he said, “it’s a no-brainer.” Sony Pictures Entertainment and Howard Hughes Holdings, Wahlberg said, saw the opportunities and stepped up with a plan. Their $1.8 billion Summerlin Production Studios Project would create 10 soundstages and a 2-acre backlot on 31 acres north of Flamingo Road and east of Town Center Drive.

Birtcher Development, based in Newport Beach, California, and The MBS Group, which operates 30 studios around the world, are behind the competing $800 million Nevada Studios project. It would build up to 14 soundstages and a 5-acre backlot on 34 acres in the southwest valley as part of UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park.

While privately financed, both projects are reliant upon the state’s film tax incentives being overhauled during the 2025 Legislative session that begins Monday.

But what would Las Vegas gain from having a movie studio?

Economic diversity

“You hear it from every legislator, you hear it from every business, you hear it from every chamber: ‘We need to diversify our economy,’ ” said Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas. “And we talk about it, and we talk about it, and we talk about it.”

Jauregui’s bill would address that by having the state set aside up to $105 million in tax credits per year for 15 years, an increase from the current $10 million a year. Of that, $80 million would be reserved for film and television projects at the Summerlin studios, with the other $25 million available for productions filmed throughout Nevada.

Sen. Roberta Lange, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill to revamp the state’s film tax credits during the 2023 Legislature, but it was never brought to a vote. Her upcoming bill would make up to $115 million a year available for 15 years, with $100 million set aside for production at Nevada Studios and the remaining $15 million for projects anywhere else in the state.

In comparison, California has an annual maximum of $330 million in credits, although Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed raising that to $750 million, while Georgia routinely tops $1 billion in annual credits.

“I realized long ago that we couldn’t live on the gaming industry and the mining industry and make things work in our state as it grows,” Lange said. “And then COVID happened, and we saw what happened when we had a one-industry state.”

Jobs

With those new tax credits in place, the Summerlin project has promised 19,000 new jobs sustained during construction and 15,000 new jobs sustained upon its completion. According to the project’s financials, direct studio jobs would have an average salary of $113,000.

The Nevada Studios project would create approximately 1,800 construction jobs and approximately 12,000 long-term jobs in film and television production, with 4,500 additional jobs in support services. The wages for those jobs are expected to be 35 percent higher than the average Nevada salary.

Working on a film or television set is “a good, solid job that doesn’t require a formal education in order to enter the workforce,” said Kim Spurgeon, director of the Nevada Film Office.

“It’s primarily on-the-job training,” Spurgeon said, adding that aspiring production assistants can learn what they need to know about being on a set in as little as two days. Once on set, those PAs would eventually gravitate toward a particular field.

“It’s definitely an industry where you work your way up based on experience,” she said.

Education

For those who want to pursue a formal education in film, the 50,000-square-foot Nevada Media and Technology Lab would be a centerpiece of the Nevada Studios.

“We have agreements with all of the universities to be a part of our project as we build that,” said Lange, a retired teacher.

UNLV film students would spend two years on the university campus, then two years at Nevada Studios gaining hands-on experience, Lange said. Upon graduation, those students could continue to live and work in Las Vegas.

“The thing we all hear the most in Nevada,” she said, “is people get trained, and they leave our state because we don’t have that kind of industry here.”

Education and vocational training are built into the Summerlin project, Jauregui said, adding that her legislation would benefit students across the board.

“We calculated that, over the course of the life of the tax credit, we’re going to be able to send an additional $200 million to the state education fund,” she said, “which is important.”

Ancillary benefits

With so many new, good-paying jobs, those salaries would be spread around town at stores, restaurants and other businesses, Lange said.

“It’s not only about us,” she said of Nevada Studios, “it’s about the ancillary businesses that will benefit also from the film industry.”

After salaries are accounted for, the film office’s Spurgeon said, the bulk of a production’s remaining budget would be spent throughout the community.

“This just becomes a direct infusion of cash into the local economy in terms of what they spend — in hardware stores for construction, buying up wardrobe pieces, going to local dry cleaners, car rentals and truck rentals, making gas purchases, hotel rooms for any of the people coming in from out of town to stay here,” she said. “It just creates a lot of economic impact in terms of that direct spend.”

“If our No. 1 economy is hospitality, gaming and tourism,” Jauregui echoed, “think about how many heads are going to be put into beds because of production that’s taking place here.”

The Summerlin project would create additional opportunities by anchoring what’s described as a 100-acre commercial village that would include hotels, office space, an urgent care medical center and retail, food and beverage outlets.

Nevada Studios would cover an additional 14 acres with ancillary development and support services that would include a hotel, offices and mixed-use retail. It also would have a studio tour.

Protection

“There are businesses that have come to Nevada and taken money from the state and not finished their projects and left,” Lange said. “So I really wanted to ensure that we had protection for our state.”

Under both bills, the tax credits wouldn’t go to the companies that build or run a studio. They’re reserved for the producers of each film or television project, which would have to have completed work in Nevada, with certain local spending and hiring requirements met, before applying for those credits.

What comes next

In the case of film tax credits, the 2025 Legislative session is shaping up to be a “two bills enter, one bill leaves” scenario, whether that’s by compromise or one project ultimately prevailing.

“The reality is, our state can’t afford to do both,” Jauregui said. She sees either the Summerlin project or the Nevada Studios project coming to fruition — or neither of them.

The Summerlin project had been part of Lange’s earlier legislation before setting out on its own with Jauregui.

“The bottom line is, and I told them this, if we can’t get to one bill, both of our bills are dead,” Lange said. “And that is not good for Nevada.”

One group will have to drop its plans and join with the other, she said.

“I invited them to join our bill (and said) that we had room for them on our campus,” Lange said, “that we could make this work.”

The two sides already have found common ground with their messaging.

“We do not have a state income tax here, so we have to look at different ways to bring in revenue,” Jauregui said. “We cannot keep funding our state on one industry alone. It’s not feasible.”

“Wouldn’t it be great,” Lange said, “to create an industry that can help us diversify our economy in Nevada and provide more funding for the state so that we can do more for education and more for health care and more for housing? I just think it’s a win-win.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.