Entertainment
California Lawmakers Reach Deal to Amend Production Tax Incentive Ahead of Deadline
California lawmakers have unveiled a new trailer bill that will make changes to the state’s expanded production tax incentive program after a law capping annual tax credits for all businesses passed earlier this summer.
On June 29, Senate Bill 122 was passed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of the state’s annual budget, capping the amount of tax credits any business can receive at $5 million or 70% of total liability per year, whichever is greater. The bill was passed as a way to raise revenue from corporate taxes by closing loopholes.
But SB 122 sparked alarm among studios and entertainment unions, as the law threatened to undermine the industry’s efforts to make California more competitive as a film and TV production hub by expanding the state’s production incentive cap from $330 million to $750 million last year. With the $5 million annual cap in place, industry advocates like the Entertainment Union Coalition and the Motion Picture Association warned that it would take longer for major studio productions to receive the tax credits they earned while making it more difficult for independent productions to sell the credits to potential financiers.
A new trailer bill, Assembly Bill 186, seeks to mitigate this with changes to the incentive program. The bill was printed Friday afternoon hours ahead of the deadline to submit new bills before the final day of the Sacramento legislative session on Monday. AB 186 will be among a flurry of dozens of bills that lawmakers will vote on, though it is expected to pass.
AB 186 will accelerate payouts for productions approved under the most recent version of the incentive program with a payout over two years rather than five and lower the discount on refunds for the credits from 10% to 5%.
The bill also expands the carry forward provisions of tax credits earned under earlier versions of the program from 10 to 15 years, meaning that studios still receiving credits for productions completed several years ago can still receive the full value of their credits as long as the studios have a project approved for tax credits under the current program.
Independent productions will also be fully exempt from the SB 122 annual cap, though the trailer bill stops short of extending that exemption to major studio productions. Insiders with knowledge of the talks in Sacramento between lawmakers tell TheWrap that there was concern that a full exemption for all productions would cause businesses from other industries to push for exemptions of their own, undermining the effectiveness of SB 122.
More to come…
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Summer is rapidly coming to an end, even if the weather doesn’t feel like it just yet, and that means it’s back to school for many. To prepare, some good back-to-school movies might help.
Whether you’re headed back to the classroom yourself — either a student or maybe a teacher — or just have a loved one getting back into the swing of things, a new school year can be daunting. So, for this list, we picked some films that can remind you how fun it is, while maybe teaching some good lessons along the way.
Here are five back-to-school movies to stream in August.
Grease
Technically, “Grease” takes place over the course of an entire school year, but it does start at the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. Danny Zuko literally says (very cheekily, thanks to John Travolta understanding the assignment) “it’s only the beginning” at the start of the film.
“Grease” will hit extra hard for any youngins who found a summer romance, as it stars Olivia Newton-John and Travolta as somewhat star-crossed lovers, who have to figure out how to navigate life when they run into their summer fling at school. Can they even exist together as a couple when they get back to real life and their usual friends?
Granted, “Grease” doesn’t send an awesome message when Sandy (Newton-John) changes nearly everything about herself in order to keep her man and friends as she heads into the next summer. Maybe just turn it off before you get to that part, and pretend it ends just before the “Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee” reprise (though that reprise is gorgeous).
“Grease” is streaming now on Pluto TV and Paramount+.
Kicking and Screaming
Just about every cinephile knows the name Noah Baumbach, and his debut film, “Kicking and Screaming” is a perfect back-to-school movie if you want to buff up your knowledge of his work, or just enjoy a good filmmaker’s start.
“Kicking and Screaming” follows a group of college grads who, for various reasons, decided to stick around their college town instead of moving on with their lives. Now it’s a new school year, and they spend the fall semester figuring things out (or … not) while navigating situations and dynamics they no longer relate to.
It’s a beloved entry in ’90s slacker culture cinema, and boasts a stacked cast of indie darlings, including Parker Posey, Chris Eigeman, Eric Stoltz, Cara Buono and Josh Hamilton.
“Kicking and Screaming” is currently streaming on YouTube, Tubi, The Roku Channel, PLEX and Fandango.
Back to School
I mean, it’s hard to have a “Best Back-To-School Movies” list and not have “Back to School” on it. A little literal? Perhaps. But it counts!
The film stars Rodney Dangerfield as a wealthy but uneducated father, who goes to college in solidarity with his discouraged son, Jason (Keith Gordon). But here, he learns that money can’t actually take care of everything. We’ve seen plenty of similar plotlines since — at least, in the “parents go back to school and learn how different it is” genre — but this is one of the best.
It also stars a young Robert Downey Jr., which is always an added bonus.
“Back to School” is now streaming on Prime Video and Philo.
Mean Girls
When joining a new school, it’s important to figure out the cliques pretty fast, and figure out who you can trust. Otherwise, things can get messy.
This is a lesson that Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) learns pretty immediately on her first day at North Shore High. She’s just started going to public school, after being homeschooled for her entire life. Things in a real school work differently, she soon learns, but it’s not unlike the jungle environment she grew up in.
“Mean Girls” is just a classic, and may be a good reminder to your kid not to be the Regina George of their class. And maybe it’ll encourage them to join mathletes, who knows.
“Mean Girls” is currently streaming on Pluto TV, Peacock and Paramount+.
Monsters University
It’s rare that a sequel that’s actually a prequel is as good as the original, but such is the case for “Monster’s University,” and it just so happens to be a great back-to-school movie.
The animated film gives fans the story of how Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) first met and became best friends. And it turns out, it was in college. At the start of their first year at Monster’s University, both are determined to be great scarers, but Sulley is a slacker and Mike is just … not that scary looking.
Though they initially butt heads, they eventually work together to help each other out, creating the bond that eventually leads to “Monsters Inc.” It’s a college story, sure, but it’s Disney and Pixar, which means it works for kids of all ages, headed to a new school year and looking to make friends.
“Monsters University” is streaming on Disney+.
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The California production community can breathe a sigh of relief: State lawmakers have officially introduced a bill meant to allow studios a few key exemptions from a recently enacted restriction on corporate tax credits.
AB136, introduced Friday evening, addresses concerns raised from stakeholders including the Motion Picture Association about the threat of undermining the efforts to expand California’s Film & TV Tax Credit pool to $750 million.
Lawmakers have to consider legislation for 72 hours before voting. With that in mind, a vote on AB136 is likely to come Monday evening, hours before the midnight end to the legislative session.
The state budget, passed this summer, seeks to stabilize revenue by preventing corporations from offsetting more than $5 million in tax liability annually for the next three years. Several advocacy groups pushed for a complete exemption, but the solution introduced by lawmakers on Friday evening does fall short of that.
Instead, only independent productions will be completely exempt from the $5 million cap. The legislation also addresses concerns about the payback period for studios that have elected to refund credits for cash. Current law allows studios to get cash instead of claiming the credit against tax liability for a 10% discount on the total with a payback period of five years. The fix accelerates that to two years with just a 5% discount.
The new legislation will also extend the expiration date of the non-refundable tax credits that were issued prior to 2025.
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Rosie O’Donnell wrapped up her week guest hosting on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to impressive numbers, ranking as the highest-rated summer substitute thus far.
For the week of Aug. 17, O’Donnell averaged a total viewership of 2.17 million and a demo viewership of 237,000 viewers, according to live-plus-three-day viewing figures from Nielsen reported by LateNighter.
O’Donnell’s week of hosting marks the ABC late night show’s most-watched week in both measures since mid-June, before Kimmel tossed the show over to a suite of guest hosts, including Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, Ike Barinholtz and Colman Domingo.
In fact, viewership for O’Donnell’s week of hosting was up in both categories from the week of Aug. 9, which was headed up by Anderson. Total viewership for O’Donnell was up 40% from the previous week, while demo viewership saw a 34% rise.
With that, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” maintained its lead on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” which averaged 1.43 million viewers and 171,000 demo viewers, as well as “Comics Unleashed,” which averaged 654,000 total viewers and 75,000 demo viewers across the same hour.
O’Donnell’s stint hosting also boosted ratings for ABC’s “Nightline” as it picked up at 12:35 a.m. The show averaged 918,000 total viewers – up 11% from the previous week — and 110,000 demo viewers — rising 20% from the previous week.
O’Donnell started her guest hosting week strong. On Monday, Aug. 17, O’Donnell brought in 1.87 million total viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures reported by LateNighter, which marked the biggest audience for any of Kimmel’s guest hosts so far this summer.
Country music artist Jelly Roll took the baton from O’Donnell for the week of Aug. 24. So far, Jelly Roll’s Monday audience landed at 1.07 million viewers, down 11% from the previous Monday when O’Donnell held the stage. Full ratings for Jelly Roll’s week of hosting will be available next week.
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