While commercials have risen like cream to the top of 2006’s total film revenues, income from features went flat at an estimated $35 million.
The Illinois Film Office 2006 estimate misses by a country mile an optimistic projection of $125 million, the most revenue ever generated in 1999, and yet to be repeated.
Only six studio features and just one studio film in its entirety shot here last year, marking a disappointing decline of $55 million from the estimated $90 million racked up in 2005.
The comedy “Quebec” from Dimension was single studio film shot entirely in Chicago last summer, the directorial debut of Chicagoan Steve Conrad, who wrote “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “The Weather Man.”
The five studio pictures that shot partially in Chicago were Kirsten Sheridan’s “August Rush,” David Dobkin’s “Fred Claus,” and Ken Kwapis’ “License to Wed” from Warner Brothers, Mike Barker’s “Butterfly on a Wheel” from Icon, and Takashi Shimizu’s “The Grudge 2” from Columbia.
Added to these were several indie films in the six-figure to $1 million dollar range that were added into the features total.
But not to worry, say advocates of the improved 20% film tax credit about last year’s revenue blip.
The Big Mo’ has picked up and the phones ring constantly at the film office, eight months after the governor signed the new and improved 20% into law, and the just-approved “rules” clarifying how the incentives work are being circulated to producers.
Add to this the arrival of film-experienced Betsy Steinberg at the IFO helm, and features could climb back to their former perch and beyond.
