'The Hobbit' Law: Pandering to Film Companies?

Abstract

Initially dominated by Hollywood, the film industry has since become global.. With the globalisation of the industry, countries fiercely compete for filming, offering aggressive incentives to obtain film productions. The film industry and the incentives countries provide became of issue because of the filming of ‘The Hobbit’ in New Zealand. As a result of Trade Union attempts to gain more rights for film workers, Warner Brothers’ threatened to relocate the film elsewhere. This saw the New Zealand Parliament change the employment status of film workers to self-employed. Such workers are now legally unable to bargain collectively which effectively means they are cheaper than other categories of workers. This amendment raises the question of what countries are prepared to do to get productions to film in their country. In effect, the industry is plagued by countries pandering to film companies.