For me, it’s partly because the two cinemas where Shin and I used to spend Friday nights — dinner and a movie — are now shuttered. Reno’s downtown Riverside Theatre and Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Cinema have both closed amid declining ticket sales, increased competition from streaming services and changing consumer habits, such as favoring movies at home. More than 1,000 U.S. theater screens have closed since 2019, and total box-office revenue remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

Hollywood’s demise has a lot to do with what has appeared on movie screens in recent times. Instead of creative, bigger-than-life sagas of the human spirit in all its varied forms — in war, peace, romance and even crime — today’s Hollywood films typically rely upon remakes, sequels and prequels of past glories, computer-generated comic book super heroes extravaganzas or horror flicks designed to frighten, or simply disgust. Call me old-fashioned. The fact is, this once avid filmgoer has become just plain disinterested. Many of my younger friends seem much the same, for their own reasons.

Even famed Oscar-winning Hollywood film director Martin Scorsese has soured on all the comic book super-hero types now frequently served-up by today’s bottom-line studios. In an interview with GQ Magazine, Scorsese says, “Superhero movies are “not cinema,” comparing them to theme parks rather than the art form of human emotion and psychological experience. He argues that they prioritize spectacle and commercial interests over artistic expression and that Hollywood’s financial dominance by these “franchise pictures” is pushing other types of films to the margins. The Oscar-winning director went on to say: “Theaters have become amusement parks.”

The last time I checked — some of those theme parks are closing as well.

Is a Nevada film industry a good investment?

In a recent Wall Street Journal story titled “L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie,” the newspaper reports: “The entertainment industry is in a downward spiral… Work is evaporating, businesses are closing, longtime residents are leaving and the heart of L.A.’s creative middle class is hanging on by a thread. Hollywood’s downturn has rippled through the region’s economy.”

Which is why some Nevadans believe luring struggling Hollywood film studios here could be a wise pursuit. As reported by The Nevada Independent, a PAC funded with $1 million by a coalition of building trades unions is preparing “to spend big to shape public and legislative opinion to pave the way for film tax legislation” if a special session is convened by the governor.

Incentives to motivate companies to relocate to Nevada have always been a tax tool in the state’s arsenal. A low-tax, limited-regulatory business environment has benefitted Nevada’s growth spurts throughout its history.

Transferable tax credits were a device to bring the Teslas of the world to Nevada. Acting like coupons that could be sold to other companies to help offset a company’s initial investment, they’ve worked effectively to attract major new industries and sports franchises to Nevada — even though libertarian organizations like the Nevada Policy Research Institute have consistently opposed having government “pick winners and losers.” Pick we did in the case of Tesla, and overall, I believe Nevada ended up a winner with the electric-vehicle company that helped usher the state into the era of advanced manufacturing.

I’m not so sure bringing Hollywood studios here would yield the same return on investment. Beyond the turmoil in California’s film industry, other states — such as New York and Georgia, with far larger economies and infrastructure, and nearby New Mexico and Utah — are already far ahead of Nevada in attracting films to be made outside of Hollywood.

While I support the livelihoods of construction workers — whose well-being is tied to the state’s overall health and the ancillary benefits of growth and development — I believe there are more pressing needs and far better opportunities for Nevada than becoming another annex for an on-the-ropes Hollywood.

Why not incentivize housing instead of Hollywood?

Two times, movie studio executives have tried to pass legislation to expand Nevada’s film tax credit program. They hope a Special Session, expected to be called soon, may be their third-time charm.

Should the public, through its elected representatives from both political parties, fail to get on board with the latest “central casting” call from Hollywood executives, I’d recommend another way to get creative.

Like UNR just did.

The national housing crisis manifests in many forms, but most impactful is the severe shortage of affordable housing units. State and local municipalities are increasingly taking action to build and preserve affordable housing. Localities can deploy a wide range of tools and investments: tax abatements and exemptions, tax increment financing, payments in lieu of taxes, public land contributions, low-interest rate loans, voucher deployment and more.

Instead of $1.4 billion over the next 15 years in tax credits for a film studio complex and related businesses, why not use those potential transferable tax credits as an economic development tool to help finance and provide a source of equity to fund construction of housing or rehabilitation for affordable housing for key segments of the economy, such as teachers, medical professionals and seniors. Large industrial partners like Tesla could be incentivized or make good on the “housing and infrastructure” promise Elon Musk made to the region and his own employees.

Better we do things for Nevadans who are already here than for those we hope to migrate here from Los Angeles.

Legendary Hollywood filmmaker Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life”), once said, “Only the daring should make films. Only the morally courageous are worthy of speaking to their fellow men for two hours, and in the dark”.

Nevada could use a little of that daring and courage. Hollywood may not be the answer. But the housing needs of many of our own families certainly are.

Your thoughts? At: tahoeboy68@gmail.com.

“Memo from the Middle” is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey, a member of the Nevada Legislature from 1996 to 2016. 

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