New Jersey’s largest film studio, which expects host up to four “major” TV and film productions a year, has opened its doors in Jersey City.
Gov. Phil Murphy joined in the massive new studio’s ribbon cutting Friday, saying the project is just what he hoped for when he revived the state’s dormant tax incentives to draw big Hollywood business to the Garden State.
“New Jersey is where filmmaking began, and we are quickly regaining the reputation as a premier location for both film and television production,” the governor said in a statement.
The Criterion Group in 2019 announced plans to convert a warehouse in the industrial part of Jersey City into Cinelease Studios, Caven Point, with nearly 70,000 square feet of stage space across three sound stages.
The Criterion Group purchased the 5.6-acre property at 21 Caven Point Ave. for $16.75 million. The studio expects to book two to four “major” film and TV productions each year, employing hundreds of film technicians, the governor’s office said.
“New Jersey has long been a meaningful and oftentimes striking backdrop for filmmaking from independents to the modern streamers and blockbusters,” said Gannon Murphy, general manager of Cinelease Studios, said in a statement. “As Cinelease Studios, Caven Point opens its doors to film and television, our studio clients, filmmakers, and content creators no longer see New Jersey as background. We are now the leading character.”
New Jersey bough back the tax credit and it has helped to bring more filming to the Garden State. It was the incentive Stephen Spielberg needed to remake West Side Story;
that received $6.9 million in tax credits, while “Joker” got $2 million and $10.2 million flowed to HBO’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel “The Plot Against America.”
FILMING IS BACK!!!!!!