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With this year’s stellar box office performance only highlighting the enduring interest in the cinema experience, there’s a lot for the cinema industry to celebrate. However, that doesn’t mean the woes that have followed the industry since the pandemic are fully put to bed. Industry insiders argue that passing the SCREEN Act could do a lot to support those remaining struggles. Entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, at Blake & Wang P.A., looks at what’s at stake.
Ongoing Struggles
Fundamentally, one strong year does not a full recovery make. At least not when it comes to the capital the post-pandemic years have slowly eroded. That’s partly what the bipartisan Supporting Cinema Renewal, Enhancement, and Enriching Neighborhoods, or SCREEN, Act hopes to rectify. Broadly put, the legislation hopes to help more movie theaters access the capital investments needed to improve and modernize facilities. It includes a tax credit for movie theater investment, and would then sunset after 5 years.
A Potential Solution?
It’s certainly appealing in potential. The tax credit would encourage theater owners to invest in modernization, with knock-on impacts on the businesses around them. Currently, that’s pegged at around $1.50 spent per $1 spent on the ticket itself. Not to mention the contractors and workers who would benefit.
This also comes at a time when Congress is seriously contemplating creating a federal film tax to help keep the US competitive as a filming location. As always with any legislative process, it will be a while before we see if the SCREEN Act comes to fruition. However, theoretically, at least, this could create quite a powerful two-for-one that could prove vital in redefining the US’s role in moviemaking and expand the global impact of Hollywood fare, one of the country’s largest exports. Let’s hope to see some clarity soon.
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