From Caddyshack to Scarface, Florida has a long history with the movie industry. While Central and South Florida have served as more prominent locales for film and television, Southwest Florida has had its moments on the big screen, too. You can see Fort Myers in movies including Just Cause and Day of the Dead. The Meryl Streep movie Adaptation is filmed extensively in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. For the making of Wind Across the Everglades, cast and crew (including a young Christopher Plummer and Peter Falk) stayed at the Rod & Gun Club in Everglades City and filmed in Everglades National Park and Chokoloskee.

Florida has been an ideal place to film due to its warm weather. In fact, about 100 years ago, Jacksonville was considered the Winter Film Capital of the World. Kalem Studios established a Jacksonville presence in 1908, filming silent pictures. Shortly after, more than 30 studios were shooting there, including the progressive Norman Studios, noted for its roles for Black actors that defied stereotypes at the time.

As the so-called “talkies” started to emerge, Jacksonville faded as a film hub. Shooting continued in the state, though, and more recently, Orlando has become a hub of film and television thanks to Disney, Nickelodeon and Universal Studios.

The state did offer various tax incentive programs between 2004 and 2016 to encourage film production in the state. But they weren’t renewed, and Florida has since been losing business to Georgia, Louisiana and other states that offer more lucrative enticements. That said, the film and television industry is responsible for close to 43,000 jobs in the state (compared to about 211,750 jobs in California) and about $3.6 billion in wages, according to the Motion Picture Association.