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Canada Is The New Hollywood, At Least According To FilmLA's New List

Canada's coming for you, California. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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Oh, Canada?! Watch out for more maple-syrup farms in the backgrounds of hit movies.

Last year, 20 of the top 100 U.S. movies were made up north, according to a new study from FilmL.A. That's twice as many as California, which comes in fourth place on the list behind Canada, Georgia, and the U.K.

Yes, we know they're mixing states and countries, shhh. But wait -- even looking at Canada's provinces, the news is only slightly better, as we still lost out to British Columbia. They had 11 of the top 100 to our 10.

Canada's been on the rise -- they tied California back in 2013, but haven't been back in that top slot since. It's our second year in fourth; last year the winner was Georgia.

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(Chart courtesy FilmL.A.)

We also lost out in animation. Canada had six of the top 100's animated films, while the U.S. only had five, with California landing four of those.

The top 100 movies were shot in more than a dozen states and 20 different countries. The only continent to not have a top 100 movie: Antarctica.

FilmL.A. promotes film production in both the city and county of Los Angeles, seeking to attract and keep movies/TV/etc. made here. They noted that the U.K. invests the most in film incentives at $822 million, while North America's largest program is Georgia's at $800 million.

California's tried to encourage more film production here, but the program has yet to have a huge impact on film. Only two of those 10 big movies made in California received incentives.

"The impact of the improved California Film & Television Tax Credit 2.0 Program on the state's output of top 100 films has been limited over the last two years, but shows signs of picking up in the future," the report states.

Next year looks bright, according to FilmL.A. -- they note that some of the movies projected to make the most money are shooting in California, including Captain Marvel, Bumblebee, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Top Gun 2.

The old version of the program excluded big-budget movies, but that's no longer the case. One other factor keeping California's numbers down: streaming providers. They note that movies from studios like Netflix have received incentives and spent big in the state, but that they're not going to show up in the top 100 box-office due to their distribution on streaming.


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