So says Moviemaker and their list of "The Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker 2018: Big Cities." Vancouver, in fact, comes in a respectable number two, just behind Atlanta, Georgia.
The reason Vancouver ranks so high is a matter of numbers, for starters. In 2017 Vancouver has 338 productions that qualified for provincial tax credits, up from the previous year by 41.
Crowds gather to watch “Deadpool 2” filming in Vancouver (Popsidoodle / Shutterstock.com_
"Vancouver was also host to two dozen series in 2017, including six new pilots. As of December there have been 189 commercials and 87 miscellaneous projects produced," adds Moviemaker.
And those numbers mean money--an estimated $2.6 billion in film expenditures in B.C. in 2017, up 35 percent from 2015-16.
More numbers? Sure. We've got a "blossoming infrastructure of 2.5 million square feet of stage space on over 100 stages, the world’s largest VFX/animation cluster, 17 educational institutions with motion picture production as a discipline, and 3,000 graduates per year entering media from B.C.’s post-secondary programs, as well as abundant woodsy-green shooting locations (see: any X-Men film)."
Vancouver is also increasingly becoming a magnet for smaller, independent productions (don't let frequent sightings of The Rock fool ya). Though it probably helps coming into town on a bigger budget if you want to live in Vancouver; it's not exactly the most affordable city in North America.
Coming in behind Vancouver at number three for movie-maker is the real Hollywood, aka Los Angeles, California.
