Newsom proposes raising California’s film and TV tax credit to at least $1 billion a year

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday, November 2, that he wants to raise the state’s film and television tax credit from $750 million a year to “at least $1 billion” and keep it running through 2040. It is a proposal, not law. The announcement, posted by the California Film Commission, names no bill and gives no start date, and it does not say what the longer program would cost in total.

The release is not fully consistent. Its opening says “at least $1 billion,” while its list of changes says “over $1 billion.” It gives the extension both as “through 2040” and as a move “from five to 10 years.” The $74 million above comes from its statement that $100 million would be “up $26 million.” The funding caps on above-the-line pay, which the release ties to the industry’s leading talent, are not spelled out.

A third step in under two years

The credit stood at $330 million a year until July 2025, when it rose to $750 million, which the governor’s office counts as $3.75 billion over five years. In September 2026 Newsom signed two more bills: AB 2319, a new credit for post-production work, and SB 186, which changes how credits can be refunded and exempts some independent productions’ credits from a temporary limit starting in 2027. By our arithmetic, $1 billion would be a third more than today’s pool and about three times the level before July 2025.

What the state says the money has delivered

The figures here are the governor’s office’s own, and the release does not say how they were worked out or who checked them. It says the first year of the larger credit brought $8.25 billion in direct production spending to date, more than 43,000 cast and crew jobs and more than 8,600 filming days in California. It gives film shoot days as up 52% year over year and TV shoot days as up more than 7%. A line on applications reads “up 82%” and then breaks off.

The total has grown from release to release. In July the same office put the 170 projects awarded in the fiscal year through June 30 at $6.6 billion in direct production spending and nearly 35,000 jobs, and its headline called that projected. In September and October it gave $7.2 billion. The November release keeps the “first year” label for a larger figure and gives no project count, so it does not show which awards the $8.25 billion covers or how much of it has already been spent.

The release also calls the program “the nation’s largest capped film and TV tax credit.” The office’s October release said “one of the nation’s largest capped film incentives.” The word “capped” sets aside any state without a fixed yearly limit, and we did not check the ranking against other states’ official figures.

The Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser was more cautious about the last increase. In February 2025, when $750 million was still a proposal, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said a bigger credit would draw more productions to California but found “weak evidence” that it would benefit the state’s economy as a whole. Its October 2025 budget review put the higher cap’s cost at $209 million a year in state revenue by 2028-29, and more after that. Both reports came before the November proposal.

Why it reaches the movie listings

The credit goes to particular productions, so some of what it pays for reaches theaters. Disney’s Hexed, due on November 25 according to our November theatrical calendar, was among the projects named in July. The last four film rounds the commission has posted look like this:

Independent films dominated the latest round: 28 of the 35 in October, the state says. The proposed $100 million would add to the money set aside for that kind of film.

The federal piece

Newsom used the same announcement to press Congress to pass the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act by the end of the year, saying that “states can’t shoulder the cost alone.” He backed the bill on September 24, when the state described it as a 20% federal credit that could be stacked with state programs, introduced by Senators Adam Schiff and Tim Scott and Representatives Nathaniel Moran and Linda Sanchez. Neither release says how far the bill has moved.