Walt Disney Co.-owned 20th Century Studios received $21.9 million for \u201cThe Simpsons Movie 2,\u201d Disney Entertainment Television got $3.5 million for \u201cPhineas and Ferb\u201d and DreamWorks Animation was awarded $24.7 million in credit allocation for a yet-untitled animated film.<\/p>\n
The three are the first animated feature films to receive tax credits from the state of California. (Last month, two animated shows \u2014 a spin-off of \u201cRick and Morty\u201d and \u201cStewie,\u201d which branches off from the \u201cFamily Guy\u201d cartoon \u2014 also received tax credits.)<\/p>\n
I spoke with DreamWorks Animation Chief Operating Officer Randy Lake about the award, which he called a \u201cpotential game changer\u201d for the Glendale-based studio known for the \u201cShrek\u201d and \u201cKung Fu Panda\u201d franchises.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re reading the Wide Shot <\/p>\n
Samantha Masunaga delivers the latest news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production \u2014 and what it all means for the future.<\/p>\n
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n \u201cUnlike live-action, our projects are years long,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about not just a job for six or nine months on set. It\u2019s literally three or four years that these projects can take. It\u2019s long-term employment.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most of Hollywood, the animation industry has suffered from the effects of the 2023 dual writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes, as well as the retrenchment in studio spending after the initial rush to invest in content for streaming services.<\/p>\n And like much of U.S. film and TV work \u2014 particularly in California \u2014 the animation business has been deeply affected by the increasingly rich tax credits<\/a> offered by other countries.<\/p>\n Over the last 15 years, countries including Canada and Ireland have slowly built up animation hubs, aided by their local talent and lucrative production incentives specific to animation and visual effects.<\/p>\n For instance, visual effects and computer animation unit Sony Pictures Imageworks, which Lake ran for years, relocated its Culver City headquarters to Vancouver<\/a> more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n DreamWorks, too, has outsourced work to partner studios, particularly in Vancouver and Montreal, as costs in the U.S. have increased and studios face pressure to rein in their production expenses while theatrical box-office revenue has become less reliable.<\/p>\n Just three years ago, DreamWorks cut about 70 jobs<\/a> across its corporate functions, feature films, TV and technology departments. In 2024, Disney-owned computer animation studio Pixar laid off about 175 employees<\/a> as it pulled back on its production of streaming series.<\/p>\n But with the recent tax credit allocation, DreamWorks will hire about 100 people in California for its upcoming untitled film. Those jobs would probably would have been outsourced to a third-party studio, Lake said. Keeping all of the jobs on that film in California helps improve collaboration among the teams and foster more creativity, he said. Today, DreamWorks has about 1,000 employees.<\/p>\n To understand why the new incentives are meaningful, consider that a DreamWorks Animation movie similar to the one that received the credit will typically have a crew of about 400 to 500 people.<\/p>\n That film is a big feature, though Lake declined to share details since the project hasn\u2019t been announced.<\/p>\n Both the Animation Guild and studios have pointed to the incentive as a way to bring back animation jobs to the Golden State.<\/p>\n \u201cStudios have been chasing animation tax credits in other states and countries for years, so it\u2019s incredibly rewarding to see them use California\u2019s for the very first time,\u201d Marissa Bernstel, a trustee on the union\u2019s executive board and member of the task force that helped lobby for the expanded production incentives, said in a statement last week. \u201cThe results feel very real, and I\u2019m excited to see what future employment opportunities the incentive inspires.\u201d<\/p>\n Lake said DreamWorks hopes to take advantage of the state incentives for all of its full-budget films.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be applying for the next window,\u201d he said, adding that he hoped they will be successful so \u201cwe\u2019ll be able to have more and more of our films be fully produced in state. That\u2019s the goal.\u201d <\/p>\n Stuff We WroteFilm shoots Number of the week ![\"two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777386428_609_.png\")
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