Good news for Vancouver star-watchers and film workers: television network The CW has announced the renewal of half-dozen renewals for major B.C.-shot productions.
After a successful second season, the Greg Berlanti-produced Archie adaptation Riverdale has been given the green light for a third run.
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A report produced by accounting firm MNP LLP last September suggested hosting the teen drama was good news for B.C.’s economy, creating more than 1,000 jobs and doing business with 773 firms in 31 B.C. communities.
Altogether, it found the show had pumped more than $60 million into the provincial economy over two seasons.
Also returning to Vancouver will be four of the five DC Comics superhero shows that make up the so-called “Arrowverse”: Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.
In addition to providing film fans with plenty of opportunities to spot stars (The Flash, for example, has brought Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and director Kevin Smith to town), the quintet of superhero programs has also proven to be lucrative for the region.
Another 2017 MNP study estimated that Arrow alone had contributed more than $360 million, or about $72 million per year, to the province’s economy over its first five seasons.
Supernatural, another long-running CW hit, will also return to Vancouver for its 14th season, the network announced Monday.
The renewals come on the heels of a record year for B.C.’s film industry, which has been humming in part due to a depressed Canadian dollar.
Creative BC, the independent organization tasked with promoting the province’s creative industries, estimated that motion picture expenditures in B.C. in the 2017 financial year would top $2.6 billion, up 35 per cent from 2015-2016.
The production boom has put stress on staffing and resources in the industry; IATSE, the union representing the province’s industry, told Global News in 2017 that it had taken on 1,400 new technicians and artists.
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In 2016, B.C. scaled back its tax credit program for film production, and while some productions such as Lucifer and Legion have shifted south to take advantage of aggressive credits in California, others such as Netflix’s sci-fi noir vehicle Altered Carbon have stepped up to take their place.
You can find out more about what films and TV shows are currently in production in B.C. through Creative BC.