Indiana established the Film and Media Tax Credit Program to modernize the state’s incentives and enhance regional competitiveness. The program offers income tax credits of up to 30% for eligible film and media production activities, aiming to position Indiana as a competitive destination for film projects. To navigate program goals, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) and the Indiana Secretary of Commerce commissioned ESI to provide a study to evaluate the current landscape and economic impacts of the film industry within Indiana. The project assessed the likely impacts of potential expansions or changes to the tax incentive and offered best practices and recommendations from other film and media tax incentive programs.
ESI’s analysis combined industry labor market data, comparative policy research, and economic impact modeling to inform controls. The team estimated current statewide production spending, which is not publicly tracked, by triangulating three Indianapolis-based metrics, including film employment share, film output share, and information-sector GDP share. This yielded an estimated $20 million in current annual direct production spending. ESI then applied an input-output modeling framework to derive total economic output, employment, and fiscal impacts, accounting for the opportunity cost of tax credits. For growth projections, ESI benchmarked Indiana against Georgia and Illinois, applying those states’ historical production growth trajectories to Indiana’s baseline.
ESI also conducted a comparative analysis of nine peer states, evaluating incentive type, credit percentages, caps, and minimum spend requirements.
The current program generates an estimated $19 million in total economic output and supports roughly 180 jobs, with a net economic impact of $13 million after accounting for the $4.5 million in tax credits disbursed.
However, Indiana’s non-refundable/non-transferable tax credit program has a less competitive structure than peer states and has a $5 million annual cap. ESI recommended revising the credit structure to make it refundable or transferable, increasing the base credit to 25–35%, raising the annual cap, and creating a permitting system to track statewide production activity.
