Thanks to The Hobbit, New Zealand’s government is now offering additional incentives to attract other big-budget productions. According to Variety,
The changes to the Kiwi incentives have opened up the country’s Large Budget Screen Production Grant (LBSPG) to allow for an additional grant for very large productions ($200 million-plus) as a direct result of the tussle over the “The Hobbit” films last year, when Warner Bros. sought financial incentives to make the big-budget production more attractive.
Now, an additional $NZ9.75 million ($7.75 million) is available to these big productions, and this new grant covers expenditure that may be excluded under the current LBSPG rules.
This move merely formalizes the negotiations thrashed out by the government last year, when it fought to keep the Hobbit pics in N.Z., and is the same deal that Warner Bros. negotiated at the time.
