That’s fine, you guys have been showing the silliness of film subsidies for years, about time they listened.
But as for “The beneficiaries get free marketing, but taxpayers stuck with the bills get no returns” - that’s BS. I personally know several people who have mentioned without being prompted that they’ve planned Michigan trips after hearing those “Pure Michigan” commercials on Chicago radio stations. Completely different for the state to be advertising its public and private amenities for tourists than to be giving away free money for making a movie there, which is a private venture.
Can’t mention the madness of film subsidies without recalling director Ewe Boll, who pushed the German movie-making tax credits to the extreme, pulling a “The Producers” (without the successful results) and making epic star-studded big-budget schlock, one title after another (ruining numerous video-game franchises in the process). Asked to wit “what the he11 are you doing” in an interview, Ewe made a laudable yet faltering effort to justify his efforts as earnest attempts at silver-screen artwork. _Bloodrayne_, for example, took an interesting game and turned it into a leather-and-whips vampire-ridden faux-epic set in Nazi Germany with, as one might expect from that summary, no redeeming value.
Subsidies distort markets. Implemented without care, unintended consequences ensue.
I remember how excited the local TV news stations were about how “Hollywood” was coming to Michigan...Suckers!