A record-breaking 23 television series are currently being filmed in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg announced Monday on the set of the new ABC show "Pan Am" which is shooting at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
"It's pretty incredible when you think about it," he told reporters, according to CBS News. "During a time of financial distress, more TV shows are shooting in our city than ever before. So when you start reading stories about people leaving the city or it being too tough to do business here, nothing perfect, but the evidence is we have to be doing something right."
According to a press release, the mayor's office says the film and television production in the city is a $5 billion industry that supports over 100,000 jobs and generates revenue for some 4,000 businesses.
"Pan Am", a period drama set in 1963 about the now defunct airline, employs 400 people. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is set to hire 2,000 people within the next two years.
“Pan Am joins a long list of television series that have chosen New York City as its backdrop, and we couldn't be more thrilled,” said State Office for Motion Picture & Television Development Pat Swinney Kaufman. “The 30 percent New York State Film Production Credit has attracted more than 100 projects into the program since January. With the extension and expansion of the program, we have received more than 600 applications. Business is booming and these projects are helping to support our local economies across the state, bringing jobs to small businesses and employing thousands of New Yorkers.”
That 30 percent tax credit was first issued by the state in 2004, The New York Post reports, after the USA network decided to make a movie about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Canada, where the incentives to film were greater than in New York.
In California, the tax credit is only 20 percent, but it excludes network TV series and is capped at $100 million.
New York's program is available to any feature film or TV series.
Fitttingly, the most recent season of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" featured Larry David coming back to New York from Los Angeles.
Other shows currently shooting in New York include "Boardwalk Empire" and "Blue Bloods".
“I know you’ve heard," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, according to CBS, "it’s said that Brooklyn is ‘Hollywood East,’ but the way I think things are going, I think it’s more accurate to say that Hollywood is ‘Brooklyn West.’”