Governor Nathan Deal’s office recently said in a news release that the industry directly employs 23,500 people, with nearly 8,200 production-related employees, and had a $5.1 billion economic impact during the 2014 fiscal year.

Georgia has become a film production hot spot and one of the more popular locations for filming outside of California. Georgia’s film and television industry increased its production spending by 50 percent in the past fiscal year. For the fiscal year 2014, Georgia spent $1.4 billion; in comparison, Georgia spent $934 million on film production the previous fiscal year. Approximately 158 projects were shot in Georgia this past year, some that have generated a lot of publicity, such as “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2,” “Insurgent” (the sequel to “Divergent”), “Taken 3,” and the AMC television series “The Walking Dead,” have boosted production spending.

“Not only has this industry created jobs and investment opportunities for Georgians, it also has revitalized communities, established new educational programs, tourism product and more,” Deal said in a news release. “I will continue my commitment to growing this industry and to developing a film-ready workforce to meet the needs of the productions that are setting up shop in Georgia.”

Image from Film-GA website.