Disney: Tax Incentives No Longer the Real Competition
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- Michael Woolston (Disney) said crew and talent availability are "probably one of the biggest" variables when choosing between countries with similar budgets, noting Disney aims to "hire all the local talent that we can" including costume designers and craftsmen.
- Isaac Toussier of Mexico's Lemon Studios declared "the real competition is no longer in tax incentives, which are the norm in all countries now, but rather how well the country is adapted to receiving these productions."
- Woolston said Disney "heavily relies on" local production service companies to manage compliance, warning that "Disney is under a microscope" and studios choose the "least risk" when comparing countries.
- Sandino Saravia of Cimarrón Cine noted actors wanting to stay close to family can dictate where projects film, arguing it is "not necessarily for economic efficiency, but because we need and want to have talent."
- Woolston said Hollywood is "kind of small," with executives at Netflix, Warner Bros. and Disney sharing location experiences—positive or negative feedback among peers directly shapes where studios shoot and return.
- Toussier said Latin America's shared cultural "idiosyncrasies" let productions "skip many cultural steps" when moving between Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay—an advantage he said Spain and Italy, for example, do not share.
Why it matters: Emerging destinations like Costa Rica now have a clearer playbook—build local crew depth and institutional efficiency rather than chase rival tax breaks. For studios, the shift means risk mitigation and word-of-mouth among rival executives carry as much weight as financial terms, turning every shoot into a referendum on the local film commission that handled it.
