Amazon's Citadel gets $25m in California tax credits as it relocates

Two relocating and five new TV series will receive 80.5 million in tax incentives for shooting in California, the state’s film office said Monday.

These projects will spend an estimated $527 million in California during their first season and employ 1,585 crew, 629 cast, and 19,994 background actors.

The Amazon Studios thriller Citadel will move production from the UK for its second season to become California’s highest-spending relocating TV series to date, with an estimated $119 million in qualified expenditures. With the two additional relocating projects announced today — Citadel and HBO’s Wondermill from Oregon — California’s tax credit program has welcomed a total of 33 relocating TV series from other states and nations since the expanded tax credit program was launched in 2015 (see “Relocating TV Series” list below).

Among the new TV series selected for the latest round of tax credits is the BET drama True to the Game (based on the film trilogy with the same title), which will generate an estimated $11 million in qualified expenditures during its first season.

Other new TV series in the current round include Forever (Netflix), Paradise City (Disney), Untitled Amazon Studios Series and Untitled Paramount Global Series.

“We’re thrilled that our tax credit program is welcoming such a diverse range of TV projects in terms of storytelling, budget and employment,” said California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell in a statement. Citadel will become our biggest relocating TV series so far in terms of qualified spending, while a project like True to the Game affirms that our tax credit program also addresses the needs of smaller-scale yet still very impactful TV procects.”

“Thanks to California’s tax credit program, I will be able to work here in my home state,” said True to the Game director Vivica A. Fox. “Executive Producer Manny Halley looks forward to producing the franchise here and creating hundreds of high-quality jobs in California.”