Last week we got The Panic of '09: Location shooting plunged last year in Los Angeles County, sending everyone from gaffers to caterers scurrying for shelter as hard times (and other states) ravaged their livelihoods. This week, we get the upshot: Wherever those jobs went, they totaled more than 2.5 million across the board and paid more than $41.1 billion in 2007. Moreover, as MPAA chief Dan Glickman told lawmakers, the as-yet-unavailable 2008 numbers wouldn't be "materially different." So we're all right! Aren't we?
The NYT's Michael Cieply got his hands on the MPAA's annual economic impact report, which the organization released this morning on the first day of its "Business of Show Business" symposium in Washington. And while Glickman did say he'd accounted for some of the strike slowdowns when guesstimating 2008's numbers, the 2007 stats reflect relatively minor defections to much-feared states like Louisiana and New Mexico, which that year combined for a total of only $436 million in industry-related wages.
Comparing that to California's $16.3 billion and New York's $7.4 billion, we might downplay our initial blame on those hungry smaller states and the heel-dragging California Legislature as whole. Harvey, though? Still on the hook.
ยท Hollywood Says It Accounts for 2.5 Million Jobs and $41.1 Billion in Wages in the U.S. [Carpetbagger]