LTC 255-2019 STATE OF MIAMI BEACH FILM INDUSTRY MIAMIBEACI
City of Miami Beach, 1700 Convention Center Drive,Miami Beach,Florida 33139,www.miamibeachfl.gov
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
255-2019 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and Members the City tbmmission
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: May 1, 2019
SUBJECT: STATE OF MIAMI BEACH FILM IiIDUSTRY
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to inform you of the status of the Florida film
industry, and the successes of the Miami Beach film industry.
Since January 1, 2019 the Tourism and Culture department has issued 369 film and print
permits for locations within Miami Beach over 120 days (3.08 permits issued per day). These
permits do not include Special Event permits, wedding permits or sampling permits. While most
of these permits were for productions that were in small in nature and had very little awareness
of disruption from the general public, we have also issued permits for larger productions that
have put Miami Beach on the world stage.
Previously, in LTC 080-2019, issued on February 11, 2019, we informed you of a local film
success – "The Last Resort", a documentary film funded in part by our Cultural Arts Council
grants and produced by one of our Cultural Institutions —0 Cinema, which was set "In the
waning days of the 70s, where two young photographers document the Jewish retirees who
dominated the sunny shores of South Beach. The Last Resort tells the story of this fascinating
era in our city's history." This film is now being offered internationally on Netflix and Amazon.
Recently the Jonas Brothers shot their music video "Cool" on various sites throughout Miami
Beach, with the premise of the video being that the Brothers had been booked to play a Miami
Beach "Bingo Hall". This video showed various parts of our City, and made a feature of our Art
Deco heritage with filming taking place on Ocean Terrace and Ocean Drive. The video, which
can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8 JbZvHc92U currently has 28,000,000
views as of April 26, 2019, on the Jonas Brothers You Tube channel, and has been featured in
media outlets such as the Miami Herald, People Magazine, Good Morning America, Daily Mail
UK, and Rolling Stone Magazine to name a few:
Miami Herald:
https://www.miamiherald.com/miami-com/news/article228905254.html
People Magazine:
https://people.com/music/jonas-brothers-cool-music-video-new-single/
GMA:
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/jonas-brothers-continue-hot-streak-cool-
single-music-62196686
Daily Mail UK:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6889525/The-Jonas-Brothers-drop-new-song-
music-video-Cool.html
Rolling Stone Magazine:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jonas-brothers-cool-video-watch-818183/
Using the lowest standard marketing calculations for earned media at $7-$10 per 1000 views
(Click per Mille — CPM), this music video has realized $196,000.00 (26,000,000 views x $7 /
1000) in earned media — meaning, the exposure of Miami Beach in this video is similar to having
spent $196,000.00 on various PR campaigns.
More recently, Miami Beach was home to the production of Bad Boys 3, an international major
motion picture produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The
Amazing Race), and starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
This production shot in Miami Beach over two weeks, and had major road closures, re-direction
of traffic, and car stunt work on Ocean Drive. While causing minimal disruption to residents, this
production brought approximately $10,000,000 worth of Economic Development to Miami Dade
County with local equipment leases (camera's, electrical, barricading), local labor and extras to
work the production, hotels, meals and vehicle rentals to name a few.
This economic development was all done with zero cost to the City of Miami Beach, other than
administration salary costs from the Department of Tourism and Culture to issue the film permit.
All vehicle messaging signs, police, and other costs for filming, are paid directly by the
Production.
The previous film Bad Boys 2 was also filmed in Miami Beach and realized a worldwide box
office gross of $273,271,982.00. With an average movie ticket of$10 on the low end, it is
estimated that 27,327,198 people saw Bad Boys 2. If we were to make the same assumptions
for the recently filmed Bad Boys 3, it is estimated that on top of the $10M in economic
development, this film will generate an additional $191,290.39 in earned (unpaid) PR / media
exposure.
In the month of March, just these two films have produced an estimated $387,290.39 in
exposure for Miami Beach, while placing us as a major film capital in the world.
Below you will also find a thank you note to the Tourism and Culture department, from the Bad
Boys 3 production team thanking this City for the efforts put into making their stay in Miami
Beach, an enjoyable one (and this was after they were not authorized to close the Causeway).
As an industry recap for Florida —with the end of the tax incentives in 2014 (which were meant
to last until 2016), South Florida has seen a decline in large film productions, while nearby
states that still have film incentive programs in place, like Georgia and Louisiana, have
continued to get busier. Florida is currently the only Southeastern state without a tax program in
place to incentivize and attract film and television productions.
Georgia has recently earned the title of"Y'allywood" as it has attracted enormous productions
such as "Black Panther" and "The Walking Dead", and currently offers up to 30% in tax credits,
while ranking in the top three states for film (along with California and New York). This industry
has produced a $7 billion dollar impact in 2016 for the Peach State'. The worst part being that
some films physically being filmed in Georgia, are set in Florida.
With the above mentioned films, Florida is working hard to fully bring back the film industry, with
or without state authorized tax incentive programs. The City of Miami Beach and the Tourism
and Culture Department continues to work with the County and state legislatures towards a new
tax incentive program, as it is estimated that in the last three years, Florida has lost over $1
billion dollars in revenue, in addition to 160,000 hotel rooms nights, and 87,000 cast and crew
jobs.
The film industry is vital to who and what we are as a brand — a unique place in the world that
cannot be replicated, that millions of tourists seek out as their final vacation destination. While
TCD will ensure minimal impact on our services and our residents, we also want to ensure that
the Mayor and Commission are armed with the data above, in order to help answer concerns
that residents may have when faced with minor disruptions from these industries. We will
always strive to do what is right for our residents, and what is right for our City.
BAD BOYS
—FIA LIFE
April 22,2019
Matt Kenny
Director
Miami Beach Office for Tourism,Culture&Economic Development
Dear Man,
Now that filming of Bad Boys for Life has come to an end in South Florida,the Producers,
Cast and Crew would like to take a moment to express our gratitude for your cooperation
and assistance with this very challenging project.
We don't have a premiere date yet for Bad Boys for Life,but we hope it will be in theaters
sometime in the summer of 2020 and hope that you will have the opportunity to watch it
with family and friends. From what we have seen so for,Miami&Miami Beach look
stunning on the scenes we capture while in the area.
Your support of the film and television industry is greatly appreciated,as this movie
(along with many other industry projects)provides many highly paid jobs to trained
professionals throughout our region;it also has a significant impact on the local economy,
greedy needed in order to help to support numerous businesses related both directly and
indirectly to film production.
We want to give a special thanks to you for all your help with all our permitting needs in
the City of Miami Beach. Your assistance and good humor with our many(and often
changing)requests and tight timeline made all the difference.It is the work of each person
like you,in each permit office and location that makes our work possible.
Once again,a big thank you from our whole production team)
Yours sincerely,
The Locations Department of Bad Boys for Life,
Janice Po1lgy Supervising Location Manager
Michael JSigi Location Manager
Jennifer Orta cutellonos -Locations Coordinator
Aaron Schwartz-Key Assistant location Manager
Jamil Gonzalez-Key Assistant Location Manager
liliona Kondracki-Key Assistant Location Manager
Sandra Woodward-Key Assistant Location Manager
Jose R.Poez-Assistant Location Manager
Samuel Baloff-Assistant Location Manager)
Should you have questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact Matt Kenny, Tourism
and Culture Director at x6597 or mattkennymiamibeachfl.gov
https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/04/24/welcome-to-y-allywood-atlanta-is-the-new-face-of.html