Thailand's incentives offered to international films shot locally have begun to bear fruit, with a growing number of productions applying for the tax rebate.
More big-budget movies are filming in the country after producers learn about the measure, said Sirinart Theenanondh, chief of film business promotion at the Thailand Film Office under the Tourism Department.
Of the 714 productions that used Thailand for shooting locations in 2018, 74 were film projects and the remainder comprised advertising, documentaries, TV series and music videos.
Although the production number is lower than the 810 recorded in 2017, revenue is a bit higher, grossing some 3.14 billion baht, compared with 3.07 billion earned in 2017.
"This may indicate there are more large productions selecting Thailand as a location, which meets the government's objective to use activities to promote local tourism," Ms Sirinart said.
The incentive was introduced in 2016 with a 15% tax rebate offered to foreign film productions that have more than 50 million baht in local expenses. An additional 2% tax incentive is allowed for projects that promote local tourism and another 3% if key personnel are Thais.
The office reported six big-budget productions have used the incentive and already obtained tax rebates, including action thriller Triple Threat and comedy-drama Changeland, which chose Krabi and Phangnga provinces as locations.
The office plans for 150 million baht a year to be claimed from the tax measure.
Most came to film ad and public relations work (335 productions), followed by documentaries (120), feature films (74), TV programmes (72) and music videos (46).
In January 2019, there were 74 productions, dominated mainly by advertising and TV programmes. There were three feature films, two of which are big-budget movies from the US, applying for production expenses of 250 and 330 million baht each.
The office received an application for a Netflix movie that is expected to spend about 350 million baht. The office will arrange a free event on Friday to screen movies shot in Thailand, including Hangover II and Changeland, at Siam Paragon.