LAS VEGAS (AP) — Movies like “The Hangover” and “Ocean’s Eleven” long ago sparked interest in the Las Vegas Strip. But now unions in Nevada, wanting to boost jobs and tourism, are urging state officials to offer tax breaks to bring more Hollywood films to the state.
Efforts to offer up to $95 million in tax credits to Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery for a novel film production facility in the Vegas suburbs failed to gain enough legislative support earlier this year. But more than a dozen unions are pushing to revive the proposal during an expected special meeting next month.
“We believe that if we can get the public behind us, we can make clear to legislators what a big change this can bring to Southern Nevada,” said Tommy White, executive director and treasurer of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local 872 in Las Vegas.
Unions have formed a political action committee called Nevada Jobs Now that has raised more than $1 million to be used for digital advertising, mailers and some television commercials, White said. The manufacturing companies behind the project say it would create 19,000 construction jobs.
If the unions are successful, Las Vegas would compete with cities like Atlanta, where the film industry has boomed for more than a decade thanks to far more generous tax breaks. California, meanwhile, recently overhauled its own tax incentive programs to address a multi-year downward trend in Hollywood film production.
Production companies wouldn’t come to Las Vegas if they didn’t receive tax incentives, according to David O’Reilly, CEO of Howard Hughes Holdings, the developer of the proposal called Summerlin Studios. It would include 10 movie theaters, hotels and a medical center and be part of a master-planned neighborhood in West Las Vegas.
“There would be no reason for Sony and Warner to film in Nevada when they could get tax credits in 20 other states or around the world,” he said. “They have to put their productions where they have the best deal economically, and we’re just trying to make Nevada competitive with everyone else.”
To be eligible for the tax credits, $400 million must be spent on building a studio and $1.8 billion on building a mixed-use development with shops and restaurants, O’Reilly said. Sony and Warner Bros. would have to spend $4.5 billion over 15 years. They would be eligible for the tax credits once the studio is built and filming begins, he said.
Attracting the film fan to Vegas
The proposal comes as Las Vegas continues to see a decline in tourism. Between June 2024 and June 2025, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported an 11.3% decline in attendance.
White and other advocates argue that the film studios will not only bring jobs and revenue, but also attract tourists.
“With movie studios, you attract a whole different kind of tourist,” White said, comparing it to how major sports teams attract visitors. “You don’t just take the person who comes in to a resort to play.”
Stephen Weizenecker, an Atlanta attorney who has been involved in Georgia’s film tax credit program since its inception in 2008, said more tourists in Georgia want to visit the locations where films such as “The Hunger Games” and “Forrest Gump” were filmed.
Dubbed the “Hollywood of the South,” the Atlanta metropolitan area became a ubiquitous backdrop for major projects, including Marvel films and Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” His program has supported thousands of jobs and the creation of several flourishing studios. But it’s high-priced — the state is expected to issue $1.35 billion in loans in 2024 this year alone.
According to Carlianne Patrick, an associate professor at Georgia State University who conducts audits of the state’s tax credit programs, the state’s return on investment averages 17 cents in tax revenue for every state dollar spent.
Georgia has seen a edged enhance in manufacturing activity and an enhance in jobs, although not all of them are full-time and lasting positions, Patrick said.
The state employee union is arguing against the proposal
Some don’t see the point in giving tax credits to film studios.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a union representing thousands of state workers, joined other Nevada organizations in sending a letter to the governor this week urging him not to include the film tax credit proposal in the upcoming special session. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo says he will call lawmakers back to the capitol before the end of the year, but it’s not yet clear what issues lawmakers will address.
They argue the project is “fiscally irresponsible and politically indefensible” and would generate only $0.52 in tax revenue for every $1 of credit, citing a May 2025 report commissioned by the state.
“Every dollar we put into a corporate donation is a dollar we cannot use for our disaster preparedness, public education, health care, wildfire response, housing and the basic services that Nevadans rely on when times are tight,” the organizations wrote in the letter.
Jared Kluesner, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Campus in Las Vegas and a member of AFSCME, said the state should prioritize public services for people with mental health issues.
Kluesner wants Sony and Warner Bros. to build a film studio and create more jobs for Nevadans, but “if they do that at the expense of public services and money that should be allocated to state workers, then that doesn’t solve any real problems.”
