The Motion Picture Association of America has launched a highly informative website (link below) providing extensive state-by-state data on the film industry. Among other interesting observations, the folks over at MPA point out that “The industry  is a nationwide network of tens of thousands of small businesses, located in every state in the country, the majority of which employ ten people or less.” (emphasis added)  I’ll have more thoughts on this in future posts, but one thing the numbers here demonstrate is the clear risk of misunderstanding any industry that happens to be closely associated with a particular geographic location – equally true whether you’re talking “Hollywood,” “Silicon Valley” or even “Detroit.” Creating nationwide jobs and spurring technological innovation always requires a deeper dive into the statistics and a more nuanced examination of the role (positive or negative) played by various state and local incentive programs, tax-breaks, etc. Cheers to the MPA for getting these numbers out in the open and lets hope other industry groups create similarly accessible websites.

Motion Picture Association of America: State-by-State Statistics