State pays $22M in credits to Avengers

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Marvel's The Avengers has already raked in $1 billion worldwide, but News 13 has learned the state shelled out some serious cash to shoot the movie in New Mexico.

According to the Taxation and Revenue Department, the state paid $22,413,469 in credits to Marvel Worldwide, Inc., the company that produced The Avengers. That means the production company spent at least $88 million here, said New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis. About 80 percent of the movie was shot at various locations around Albuquerque, including the Old Railyards, the Sunport and sound stages at Albuquerque Studios.

The state currently provides a 25 percent rebate to film and TV productions that shoot here. As of July 2011, or the start of the current fiscal year, a new law went into effect that caps film and TV production payouts to $50 million. The Avengers were paid June 28, 2011, or last fiscal year, according to tax and revenue officials. That year, the state paid $96 million in credits.

"If we hadn't given them that, they probably would have made it in Detroit or Oklahoma or Utah," said Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque.

Ortiz y Pino said the state gets a good return on investments made to the film industry. About 500 locals were hired to work on The Avengers, according to the film office.

"That extra staff now has money to go to the restaurants and that restaurant now has extra money to hire waitresses and there's a ripple effect," said Ortiz y Pino.

But at least one lawmaker says the state got a bad deal.

"This was spent on a movie production project that is now gone. It was here temporarily," said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Roswell. "We could have spent that $22 million on all kinds of things like education for our children, we could have spent it on roads."

Kintigh also said he has a serious problem with paying millions to a company making a billion plus.

"This is $22 million that's coming from our state treasury. State treasury means it's taxpayer pockets," said Kintigh, who unsuccessfully tried to eliminate the film tax credits. "We made movies before we had incentives. We made movies going back 60, 70 years."

"Boy, $22 million dollars. Shat could we have done with that money permanently? That's the question."

But Ortiz y Pino said that's the wrong way of looking at it.

"To say well we paid $22 million, what did we get for it? Well we got a lot. It's just hard to measure," said Ortiz y Pino.

The state is still trying to get a study done to measure how much tax revenue New Mexico ends up getting for the millions it spends on film incentives.

There are rumors an Avengers sequel is in the works, but no word yet if it'll be back in New Mexico for shooting.