Disney’s Marvel Studios is pulling the plug on Georgia as a production hub, and the fallout is already being felt across the state. Once hailed as the “Hollywood of the South,” Georgia built its entertainment economy around Marvel blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Black Panther.
Chris Evans as Captain America in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Marvel Studios
Now, as Marvel shifts upcoming films overseas, thousands of American jobs are evaporating on Disney’s orders.
From Hollywood of the South to Empty Soundstages
Marvel’s next slate of productions—including the next Spider-Man entry, and upcoming Avengers films—will no longer film in Georgia. Instead, Disney is moving these projects to the United Kingdom. The Wall Street Journal reports that production spending in Georgia has nearly halved over the past three years, with projects dropping from 412 in fiscal 2022 to just 245 in the most recent year.
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Don Cheadle as War Machine in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Marvel Studios
Behind those numbers are real livelihoods. Workers who once relied on Marvel’s steady pipeline of projects are struggling. Script supervisor Janine Gosselin told the Wall Street Journal that she’s had to borrow from her retirement savings just to make ends meet. Others in the industry describe a devastated workforce, with one crew veteran on Reddit calling the situation “an absolute bloodbath… film work is well and truly f***ed with no recovery in sight.”
For a state that invested heavily in tax credits and infrastructure to attract Disney and Marvel, the exit feels like betrayal. Georgia helped make Marvel’s billion-dollar blockbusters possible. In return, the studio is now chasing lower labor costs overseas—where employers don’t shoulder health care expenses and unions are less powerful.
Disney Chooses UK over the United States
The decision reflects a bigger shift inside Disney. The company is looking to trim costs after years of overproduction left Marvel films and series diluted, both in quality and profitability. Moving tentpole productions to London and Pinewood Studios helps Disney save money, but it comes at the direct expense of American workers who built the MCU into the powerhouse it is today.
Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – Disney+
The irony? Disney brands itself as America’s storyteller, the entertainment empire founded in California and expanded across the United States. Yet when it comes to the bottom line, the company is exporting what was once its crown jewel to foreign soil.
For many in Georgia, it’s a slap in the face.
Trump’s Tariff Threat Looms
President Donald Trump has already floated a potential remedy: tariffs on overseas films. Back in May, he announced plans for a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States. He described the move as a way to bring Hollywood home, protect American jobs, and ensure that the U.S. film industry isn’t hollowed out by outsourcing.
The Nexus Mod of Donald Trump as Captain America in Marvel Rivals – YouTube, AsmonGold Clips
Details remain unclear, and the policy has yet to be enacted. But the mere threat of tariffs rattled media stocks earlier this year and sparked debate across Hollywood. Would studios like Disney think twice about shifting productions overseas if it meant facing steep penalties to re-import those films for U.S. audiences?
It’s an open question, but one thing is clear: Trump’s proposal directly addresses the anger and anxiety of American workers who feel abandoned by the very studios they built into global giants. For now, however, Trump has not issued a new statement on Marvel’s exit from Georgia.
A Blow to the Middle Class
Beyond Hollywood executives and Disney shareholders, this is a middle-class issue. Georgia’s entertainment sector supported nearly 20,000 jobs at its peak. That included not just camera crews and actors but carpenters, electricians, caterers, and countless small businesses that thrived because productions were in town.
When Marvel leaves, so do the paychecks that sustained families and communities.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: Kevin Feige speaks during the ceremony honoring him with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on July 25, 2024 . (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)
And unlike top-billed stars, these workers don’t have the luxury of simply moving overseas. They’re rooted in Georgia, trained in their craft, and dependent on local projects. Losing Marvel means losing stability.
What Comes Next?
The Marvel exodus raises larger questions:
- Should states double down on tax incentives to keep productions at home, even if it means offering Hollywood sweetheart deals?
- Should the federal government intervene to protect American jobs in the entertainment industry, just as it does for manufacturing and agriculture?
- And will tariffs on overseas films, as Trump has suggested, become the tool that forces Disney and Marvel to keep their blockbusters American-made?
As of now, the answers remain uncertain. What isn’t uncertain is the damage already done. Georgia rolled out the red carpet for Marvel, and in return, Disney rolled up that carpet and carried it across the Atlantic.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: (L-R) Louis D’Esposito, Co-President, Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, President, Marvel Studios, Robert Downey Jr., Joe Russo and Anthony Russo attend the Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H at SDCC in San Diego, California on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
For many Americans, the symbolism is hard to miss: while Marvel heroes fight to save fictional worlds on screen, the studio itself is abandoning the real-world workers who once helped make movie magic possible.
How do you feel about Marvel leaving Georgia? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
This move makes no sense. Why would Disney move to London to *trim* costs if they’re going to have to pay twice as much to release any films produced there stateside? It’s going to happen, I have no doubt of that. Once it does happen, Hollywoke will go from bleeding out to dead. I’m half-certain that’s what Trump wants because far-leftists run Tinsel Town now and a collapse will allow the rotten hegemony to be cleared out in favor of studios and locations around the country that aren’t going to bow to woke ideology.
It’s the same reason I *want* the video games industry to crash: for the old guard to be cleared out and new companies given the chance to rise without the former interfering with their growth.
WGA deal is up in 10 months. They are getting away from them and the rest of the unions. Over unionization has killed the studios ability to hire talent that aint woke. Only progressives allowed in WGA especially.
The WGA is now pivoting to unionize youtube creators etc. They are desperate to keep their union fees alive (the grift) to keep power as they know the films and tv studios are going overseas to kill them off and get rid of them. Hollywood unions have no power overseas to dictate who gets hired or who doesnt.
No one is owed a job and companies have to do what is right for their business. At least they do when they aren’t hampered by ESG mandates. It surprises me there it is that much less expensive to film in London. At the same time the relevance of Hollywood, and especially some of these franchises, is fading and other regions are picking up the slack.
Maybe tariffs are the answers but I hate the idea of the government forcing the hand of the free market, at least when there is no intersection with National Security. It was bad enough with the subsidies and tax breaks.
Still, without something drastic Marvel was not going to last much longer anyway so one way or another the Georgia film industry is threatened. It is just happening sooner rather than later. If Marvel collapses 4 years from now, after the Avengers movies were baked, you’d hear the same bitching and moaning about how big a surprise all this is to the workers.
That’s why, overall, I think it is probably better for the country this happen now rather than later. Let England hire all those jobs, then when Marvel dies they can figure out how to do the unemployment and Council support and all that. Georgia will already be half-a-decade removed from the crash and, hopefully, have retrained in something less ephemeral.
WGA and unions make it expensive to film plus they get to say who gets or doesnt get hired. I.e only progessives. UK unions have less power (thanks to marget thatcher) so the studios are not forced to hire woke wga people.
WGA deal ends in 10 months. Yep that strike cost them big for little benefit since the studios are abandoing usa to get away from and kill off the hollywood unions.
WGA deal ends in 10 months. They are not getting another one. Hollywood is getting rid of the WGA. money on sports (ufc,wwe etc) so less for WGA. More money on overseas talent,productions and forgein networks deals with streaming (canal, itv, bbc etc) so less need for WGA AND ITS WOKE MEMBERS.
Hollywood writers are toast.