New Jersey Is a Film Hub Again After a 100-Year Hiatus

If one was in the mood for a stargazing vacation — not for the stars in the sky, but for the name-droppy ones that grace the big and small screens — New Jersey would hardly seem the ideal location.

But, in the early days of the 20th century, Fort Lee, N.J., was the epicenter of the motion picture industry thanks to the presence of Thomas Edison, inventor of the motion picture camera and, subsequently, the world’s first film studio. 

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In the 1910s, the city of Fort Lee had more than 10 movie studios in close proximity to one another, with early stars like the Marx Brothers, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino and the Barrymore family doing some of their earliest movie work there.

The term “cliffhanger” was even invented in Fort Lee, inspired by the “Perils of Pauline” films where a dastardly villain would leave actress Pearl White hanging off the Palisades cliffs in an eternally unsuccessful attempt to steal her vast inheritance.

After factors that included World War I, the Spanish flu pandemic, and a brutally cold winter or two eventually sent the industry west, it would take a long while for the state to reclaim its birthright.

And that time is right now.

There are currently five major studio or soundstage projects in development throughout the state, with major streamers and studios such as Netflix, Lionsgate and Paramount attached. 

Thanks to a massive effort by then-Gov. Phil Murphy — who instituted the best tax incentive program in the country for filmed productions at a time when many had abandoned Hollywood for cheaper locales — New Jersey is poised once again to become a major player in the world of TV and film production.

Studios currently in the works in New Jersey include:

• A $1 billion studio complex in Fort Monmouth for Netflix, which paid $55 million in December 2025 for 292 acres on the site of a former U.S. Army base. The current plan calls for 12 soundstages totaling around 500,000 square feet and for the complex to be called Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth. The studio, which was awarded up to $387 million in tax incentives from the state, is projected to open in 2028.

• A 270,000-square-foot film and TV production studio being built in Newark. Great Point Studios is the developer, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), which worked to rezone the area for studio use, is the landlord. Lionsgate will be the anchor tenant. This is the first purpose-built film and TV studio in the state created through tax credits, and will have six soundstages ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet. It is currently scheduled to open in spring 2027.

• 1888 Studios, a 1.6 million-square-foot production campus under construction in Bayonne, with Paramount signed on as the anchor tenant. Paramount will occupy 285,000 square feet at the complex. There is no word on the project’s anticipated timing. Togus Urban Renewal is the studio’s developer. Upon completion, 1888 Studios, with 23 soundstages, will be “the largest and first campus-style film and television studio facility in the Northeast,” according to a release from the state. In June 2024, the project was awarded up to $400 million in tax credits by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA).

• A $1 billion, 10-acre waterfront redevelopment project in Carteret. The project is slated to include a 1.2 million-square-foot movie production studio complex for the use of independent productions.

• Filmology Labs: Content Creation Studios, a $250 million studio complex in Paterson that was spearheaded by a creator of E! Entertainment Network and will focus on vertical microdramas. The studio is set for full completion sometime in 2027, but developers hope to have enough stages done to be open for business this summer.  

Benefits of the tax credit program for productions that meet certain spending thresholds include a credit of up to 45 percent on all wages and salaries as well as for goods and services used or consumed in the state, with benefits codified into law until 2049.  

According to a social media post sent by Murphy’s office just before he left office, New Jersey saw $67 million of film industry spending in 2017. By 2024, that number had risen to $833 million. 

This is especially notable given the phenomenon of “runaway production” — films and shows intended for U.S. consumption but filmed outside the country in order to save money.

To understand the rich well of potential economic activity at stake, consider that around 70 countries offer a national tax subsidy for filming, something the U.S. does not offer on a national scale. 

Combined with the strength of the U.S. dollar overseas and increased labor costs here, the cost differential is so vast that the Fox network found it cheaper to fly host Rob Lowe and all 100 contestants of its game show “The Floor” to Dublin, Ireland, to shoot rather than stay in Los Angeles and shoot there, which signified a substantial loss of jobs for U.S. workers.

“It’s criminal what California and L.A. have let happen,” Lowe said on a podcast, according to The New York Times. “Everybody should be fired.”

Examples of how this hurts the U.S. are easy to find. 

According to CNBC, “Australia and New Zealand saw a 14 percent increase in the production of projects costing $40 million or more between 2022 and 2024. Meanwhile, the U.S. experienced a 26 percent decline.”  

And Hungary, to use just one example, has seen its film industry grow almost tenfold in recent years, with its production volume exceeding $1.15 billion in 2022, according to academic publisher Taylor & Francis, with Budapest now the second most popular filming location in Europe after London. Over the past decade or so, popular films that were shot in Hungary include “The Martian,” “Blade Runner 2049,” parts one and two of “Dune,” and “Poor Things.”  

With stakes this high, so too is the potential significance of a new outpost in the U.S. where productions can access any location or resource virtually at their fingertips while enjoying some of the most substantial tax incentives in the industry.   

With five major studio complexes on the way, film industry spending in New Jersey is set to soar.

Robert Halmi, a veteran TV producer and creator of the Hallmark Channel, is the CEO of Great Point Studios, which built and operates studio campuses in Buffalo, Atlanta and Yonkers, N.Y., as well as Cardiff in Wales. Great Point is currently building its fifth studio in Newark, which it will also operate, with Lionsgate as the anchor tenant. 

Lionsgate is also the anchor for Great Point’s studios in Atlanta and Yonkers, the latter of which Halmi said is the largest production facility in the Northeast at almost 2 million square feet.

After building the Yonkers facility, Halmi was approached by Gov. Murphy, who wanted something similar for New Jersey.

“We haven’t had government support for film production in a long time, until Gov. Murphy came along,” said Halmi. “He really was aggressive. He went to Los Angeles and talked directly to the studio owners and said, ‘We need you guys to come to New Jersey. What would it take?’”

Halmi worked with the governor and his team to develop an incentive for movie studios to sign on as anchor tenants for new facilities of at least 250,000 square feet, figuring that this would spur the development of a film industry infrastructure in the state.   

“There was almost no [production] infrastructure in the state of New Jersey, so to attract all these films to New Jersey without studios wouldn’t really work,” said Halmi, who believes that this New Jersey infrastructure will help return some of the lost production work to the U.S. 

“[The U.S. has] lost about 10 percent of its productions,” said Halmi. “That’s a lot of jobs. The streamers spent almost $100 billion on content in 2025, so when you think of 10 percent going overseas, it’s a big number. Now, Netflix is moving a lot of shows they shot in the U.K. to New Jersey this year.”

One Netflix production, Adam Sandler’s 2025 film “Happy Gilmore 2,” spent over four months filming in the state, and wound up spending $152 million there.

“That’s money that goes immediately into the economy,” said Jon Crowley, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission. He said New Jersey was eighth in the country two years ago in terms of number of productions filmed there, and has since risen to No. 4.

Crowley noted that, while the new studios are all a year or two from completion, the anchor tenants and others are already doing extensive production work in the state thanks to the new tax incentives, shooting on location and in converted warehouses that serve as soundstages. 

The recent Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” current Oscar nominees “Marty Supreme” and “Song Sung Blue,” the Netflix nuclear thriller “A House of Dynamite” and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming science fiction thriller “Disclosure Day” are just some of the films Crowley mentions that were shot in part or in full in New Jersey.

He also noted that the state has become more accommodating to live and reality television, with “Project Runway” and Jimmy Fallon’s new version of “Password” each now planning New Jersey productions.

The state’s workforce is already reaping the benefits.

“We went from 15,000 crew hires in 2023 to 30,000 in 2024 because of the rise in production,” said Crowley. “We’re still compiling the numbers for 2025, but I know it’s going to tick upward because we’re going from 40-something programs that came through the incentive program in 2024 to 63 in 2025.” 

The studios will accomplish so much for New Jersey that even local students are expected to benefit. 

“We’re working with Newark public schools to help them create a TV and film magnet high school adjacent to the studio where young people can learn about careers in TV and film, and do apprenticeships or internships,” said John Schreiber, president and CEO of NJPAC, the landlord for Lionsgate Newark. “Somebody in high school can apprentice or intern at our studio, and, if they are able to get a union card, they can get a job right out of high school that could pay $80,000 a year.”  

Anthony Jasenski, leader of the national film production studio practice at CBRE, believes it was “ingenious” for the state to tie greater tax incentives to anchor tenants. 

“If the film studios commit to X amount of spend and X amount of space in the state, they’re entitled to a separate bucket of tax incentives,” said Jasenski. “In most states, it’s a general pool [of funding], so it’s first-come/first-serve. Historically speaking, states like California, before they doubled their cap on the annual amount of tax credits they had, would run out. An organization called FilmLA used to track which productions left the state because there were no incentives left.”

But, while the tax incentive program has driven this new movement, Crowley emphasized that the incentives are just one draw making New Jersey an attractive destination for film and television productions.

“We have the third-largest experienced [film crew] workforce outside of L.A. and New York,” said Crowley. “We have a giant variety of locations that you’re not going to find in other states, whether that’s mountains, beaches, turn-of-the century-looking small towns or big city lookalikes, and they’re all 30 or 60 minutes from each other. Time is money for productions. I grew up in Los Angeles, where from the ocean to a snowy mountain is two hours minimum. We’re in a very compact geographical area.”

Crowley believes that the incentives merely open the door for producers to consider New Jersey as a home for their productions, while the area’s infrastructure and resources seal the deal. 

“Unless you have all the other elements they need — infrastructure, crew, locations — the incentive doesn’t matter,” said Crowley. “That’s what makes New Jersey really compelling, because we truly are a one-stop shop for productions.”

New Jersey has also streamlined the process for granting film permits and offers assistance with location scouting, Crowley notes. 

“These are all things we offer free of charge to any production, big or small,” said Crowley. “You add all those things together and it’s pretty compelling.”

The studios and producers themselves seem to agree about what the state has to offer.

“New Jersey has become a premier destination and a committed partner for our film and television production,” Kevin Beggs, chairman and chief creative officer for Lionsgate Television Group, said in a statement to Commercial Observer. “We recently shot our hit film ‘The Housemaid’ in New Jersey, and we’re currently producing ‘Power: Origins’ there. With the opening of our state-of-the-art Lionsgate Studios in Newark next year, we expect to build on that partnership by creating high-quality jobs for local crews, supporting the city’s small businesses, and investing in the region’s long-term creative ecosystem.” 

Both 1888 Studios and Lionsgate Newark are being designed by Gensler and overseen by the architecture firm’s media leader, design manager and principal John Wiedner. His take on differences between the two projects emphasizes the variety of places and situations that will be available for production use.

“Lionsgate Newark has one stage which is 60,000 square feet,” said Wiedner. “We also have stages that can be adapted to television production. But the stages Paramount rented at 1888 are on the larger size. For feature films, I would imagine 1888 is going to be more advantageous. 1888 has an immense amount of property, and we designed it with huge base camps and lots of parking — all the things a major facility would want.”

And then there’s the studio brought to us by Carteret Productions in the borough of Carteret. The developers are calling it “the world’s first fully independent, 100 percent renewable energy-powered and sustainable content development and production studio.”

The project is slated to include a “180-key all-suite boutique hotel, multiple full-service retail and dining destinations” and “12 state-of-the-art soundstages with full-service production support,” according to a proposal for the development. That proposal also includes a mention of the future inclusion of 3,000 market-rate apartments.

The Carteret project rests on land that chemicals giant DuPont owned and that was subject to a 10-year remediation. The formerly industrial space was combined with other properties to create room for the new complex as well as a new ferry terminal.  

“The content production facility is independent, which means it’s not tied to a major studio,” said Joe Bezzone, CEO and co-founder of Carteret Productions. “We’re not looking to be a streamer like Netflix, or an all-encompassing entertainment business. We are content creators. We’re making movies, TV shows and digital content, and we’re licensing that content to everybody internationally. I am the real estate component of that.”

Bezzone’s partner in the studio is Sven O. Ebeling, who will serve as the studio’s chief content officer. Ebeling was a co-producer on the 2003 feature “Nowhere in Africa,” which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A presentation deck for the facility describes a content slate of about 180 projects with “a potential production volume in the billions,” spanning content forms that include scripted and unscripted TV, feature films, animation, live stage productions and streaming events. A financier out of London will fund Ebeling’s projects, Bezzone said.

Ebeling’s slate, as Bezzone describes it, will be enough to occupy around 30 percent of the studio’s capacity. Beyond that, the Carteret campus will seek additional projects.

“We are financing independent content producers, filmmakers and TV guys to be our partners here,” said Bezzone. “So, not only are we giving the space, but we are executive-producing the shows, which is very uncommon. Instead of [project producers and creators] having to figure out how they’re going to finance the film, that’s us. And, once we create that content, they use our distribution contacts. So they get a real cradle-to-grave opportunity, and they share in the proceeds of that.”

Bezzone estimates that Carteret Productions will create around 2,000 jobs per day once the studio is up and running.

Finally, the fifth new studio is one that rejects traditional Hollywood paradigms, and will seek to create a type of media that many are barely familiar with yet.

Microdramas are dramas, often romances or thrillers, that are 60 to 90 minutes long overall, but filmed in episodes of around 60 to 90 seconds apiece, with each ending on a cliffhanger. They are meant to be watched vertically on your phone, and are largely available through apps designed just for that purpose. 

New Jersey native Alan Mruvka is the founder of E! Entertainment Network, a longtime film and movie producer, and also a veteran real estate developer as well as founder and CEO of the New Jersey self-storage chain StorageBlue.

Mruvka started thinking a few years ago about launching a new studio, and the burgeoning microdrama trend inspired him to see it through.

“About five years ago, I had this idea to do one-minute television, and didn’t do anything with it,” said Mruvka. “I [recently] went on the Apple App Store, and there were already 20 apps doing what I wanted to do — and soon it was over 200 — but they were all from China. The microdrama business is about $7 billion today, and it’s projected to go to $30 billion by 2030.”

As it happens, a building Mruvka had long admired came up for sale in Paterson at around the same time. Mruvka purchased it and is currently upscaling the 160,000-square-foot building to 250,000 square feet to use as Filmology Labs.

He also founded an app called Verza TV to air the studio’s microdramas, which he estimates cost around $200,000 to produce and take about a week to shoot. 

Filmology Labs will be divided into 21 soundstages, all designed and lit for different purposes. One might be a permanent courtroom setting, for example, while another will be a bedroom. There will also be two stages permanently designated for various special effects uses, including LED effects and green screens. The building will also have production offices and a commissary.

Mruvka hopes to open for business this summer, with the building set to be fully completed sometime in 2027.

He notes that microdramas don’t currently qualify for tax relief, but said he’s talking to the state to try to change that, while noting that Los Angeles just created a $5 million subsidy for dramas produced in the format.

“My goal is to turn this area of Patterson into a real media district,” said Mruvka. “Hopefully other companies will follow.”      

All this production work throughout New Jersey could have an enormous economic effect on the state.

Crowley of the state’s Motion Picture and Television Commission recalls that when Spielberg was filming “Disclosure Day” in Cape May County in early 2025, he accompanied a state senator on a set visit.

“I said, ‘Take a look around,’” said Crowley. “‘There’s 350 crew members here, and they’re all staying in eight different hotels at an average of $285 per night.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Wait. This is the offseason.’ I said, ‘Indeed. The hotel owners are ecstatic, because those rooms would not likely be filled in March. And, even better, everybody on the crew gets a per diem here of around $50 to $75 per night, and they’re spending that money on restaurants in the area. So that’s money that gets infused into the local economy immediately.’” 

Great Point’s Halmi sees the five new studios as a rising tide that will lift all boats, especially now that New Jersey will be competitive with studios in New York.

“You have to keep in mind that the starting point is no infrastructure,” said Halmi. “Everything in New Jersey is still about 10 percent of what exists in New York. So, right now, it’s all complementary. All the studio owners talk to each other. If we don’t have room for something, then we’ll move it to one of the other studios. We’ll collaborate on lighting services, catering services, things like that. I think it’s important for the state to have this infrastructure built as soon as possible to keep the momentum of the new tax credits alive.”

In addition to burnishing the New Jersey economy, the state’s new studio infrastructure will make New Jersey one of the major players in streaming production for years to come, Halmi predicted.

“New Jersey will be one of the top five players in the streaming business because of the makeup of who’s leasing those stages right now,” he said. “When you look at what drives streaming, it’s big original shows, and there’s a finite amount of those to drive this volume of work. New Jersey, because of their infrastructure and because they were able to convince Lionsgate, Paramount and Netflix to base there, will be a significant player — top five, or maybe even top three in the world for streaming production.”

Larry Getlen can be reached at legetlen@commercialobserver.com.