经济学人下载:电影业补贴,单边裁军

Film-industry subsidies
电影业补贴

Unilateral disarmament
单边裁军

After a decade of escalation, a stupid trend may have peaked
历经十年增长，愚蠢的跟风计划可能巅峰已过

Jun 9th 2011 | LOS ANGELES | from the print edition

Lights, cameras, subsidies, action!LOTS of states would love to be California and have their own little Hollywood. Film crews would then come to town and spend money in hair salons and hotels, and local politicians could pose with film stars. So why not call it “economic development” to justify the huge tax credits that lure film producers? As of last year, more than 40 states had such incentives, costing them a record $1.4 billion.

灯光，摄像，补贴，开始！许多州都希望像加利福尼亚一样，能拥有一个自己的好莱坞，哪怕很小。摄制组人员到时来到小城，美发厅、宾馆收入倍增，本地政界人士可与电影明星一起合影留念。那么为什么不称之为“经济发展”以证明吸引电影制片商的巨额税收减免是值得的？去年开始，40多个州都出台了发展电影业的刺激措施，成本达到了破纪录的14亿美元。

Even California itself plays the game, believing that it has to defend itself against the poachers. In 2003, when only a handful of states (principally Louisiana and New Mexico) offered incentives, California made two-thirds of America’s big-studio films. Now it makes far fewer than half. Film LA, an organisation that co-ordinates permits for film shoots in Los Angeles, says that without California’s own tax credit, “2010 would have been the worst year” since the mid-1990s for filming in Hollywood. As its marketing blog gibes: “It is extraordinarily unlikely that the 137 productions that filmed in Michigan since 2007 chose to shoot there for creative reasons, a favourable climate or a deep and talented film-crew base.”

加州也参与到这场游戏之中，他们必须要保住自己的优势，以免受到后来者的冲击。2003年，只有很少几个州（主要有路易斯安娜和新墨西哥）出台鼓励政策，当时2/3的主要美国电影由加州生产。现在这个比例远远低于1/2。Film LA是洛杉矶的电影摄制协调授权机构，他们表示，加州如果没有税收优惠政策，2010年的好莱坞影业将成为1990年代中期以来最糟的一年，正如它们营销博客的一篇文章所说：“ 2007年以来有137部电影选择在密执根州拍摄，因为那里富有创意、环境宜人、人才辈出，这种说法绝无可能。”