Oklahoma Is Making Its Case For More Hollywood Movies and TV Shows

If you admired the vast prairies in Twisters or the Western architecture in Killers of the Flower Moon, you’ve enjoyed the fruits of Oklahoma’s $30 million annual film and television incentive, which has attracted several major projects over the last few years. And despite headwinds, the state is still drawing big names.

After ramping up its incentive program from $8 million five years ago, the Sooner State played host to FX’s The Lowdown and Reservation Dogs, Paramount+’s Tulsa King and the film Reagan. It’s currently serving as the backdrop for The Lowdown’s second season, while Snoop Dogg is coming to town in the fall to film God of the Rodeo and Miles Teller is set to star in Copperhead later this summer.

“We are probably busier right now than we’ve been over the last year and a half, although we’ve always been very steady,” said the director of the state’s Film + Music Office, Jeanette Stanton, in an interview.

For that, Oklahoma can thank its generous stackable tax incentive system, which allows jurisdictions to provide their own incentives on top of the state’s 20 percent base rebate. The state’s diversity of surroundings — from desert environs to forests to cities to old West-style towns — and its production infrastructure also plays a role.

Still, like all states, Oklahoma has been subject to Hollywood’s contraction over the last few years. Moreover, other states and countries continue to compete by ramping up their tax benefits and studios remain fickle friends, chasing these discounts. According to Oklahoma film office data, industry hiring in the state peaked in fiscal year 2021 at 6,757 and returned to around 5,000 hires in 2025 (which is nevertheless up from 2024). Overall industry expenditure dropped from $187 million in 2021 to $55 million in 2025.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Stanton about the state of production in Oklahoma in 2026, the perks of shooting in her state and the production trends she’s currently clocking (hint: verticals are also a thing in Oklahoma).

How is 2026 shaping up to be for film and television in Oklahoma?

Very well, actually. We are probably busier right now than we’ve been over the last year and a half, although we’ve always been very steady, I will say. But we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of studios, mini-majors and independent producers that continue to reach out [and] a lot of repeat clients of course, that continue to do their thing.

Are there any particular productions that are going to be filming this year that are big for you?

Well, The Lowdown is currently shooting right now. The relationship we have with FX is wonderful, obviously the creator/showrunner Sterlin Harjo is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, so we couldn’t do this without him, I’m grateful for that relationship. We’re grateful to have a series in the state and hopefully continue to have more series in the state. As you know, that provides long-term workforce for the crew here, it has a great economic impact affecting the whole state as well as small cities all over the state.

And then upcoming, everyone keeps mentioning to me and texting me about Snoop Dogg being here later in the fall, we’re excited to have him here as well. That’s being produced by a local team here in Oklahoma, actually, they’ve been hired to help with the production on-ground team,  they’re called Rebellium Films. So we’re excited that maybe he’ll sing a song for us, I don’t know (laughs). He’s also producing the music for it as well, so it sounds like he’s pretty involved.

In general when filmmakers express interest in filming in the state, what is your pitch to them? What distinguishes Oklahoma in the production landscape?

Hands-down, we get a ton of compliments on the people here and the crew here. Obviously our locations, we have 12 eco-regions. Everyone is very surprised what they can find here and what we can be doubled for. But, on the incentives side, we are a cash rebate [program], one of our selling points is we are an extremely fast payout. We’re actually under 60 days once all the final applications come to our office. Right now a big selling point for us is we have stackable incentives. So Oklahoma City actually offers their own film incentive, Tulsa offers one, the city of Yukon offers one, the city of Okmulgee offers one and then obviously the big one is Cherokee Film offers one as well. So you can stack those with the state incentive. That’s a huge win for production, especially independents, they’re trying to save every dollar, we want to help them do that.

I think also, too, is we do qualify non-residents above the line, which I know a lot of incentives don’t in the U.S. We are one that does. It is capped at 33 percent of your goods and services and rentals, but we do qualify it.

I’m curious if there are some landscapes that might surprise some of our readers that Oklahoma offers.

Well we actually have a desert here, and there has been film production on it. It kind of comes out of nowhere, a lot of people use it in the summertime and go do, like, dune buggies, which is really fun. But also we have a ton of beautiful lakes here. Obviously we’re in the middle and we’re kind of landlocked but I don’t think people realize how many bodies of water we actually do have here that welcome film production. And then also, too, the diverse landscape: If you go east in the state, you’re going to get very green, hilly, obviously going towards Arkansas. But if you go the other way, to the panhandle, you’re going to get very flat, which is actually very, very beautiful, if you’ve ever been out to the panhandle. It’s sort of amazing how flat it really is and how far you can really see. So it’s just very, very diverse. You can do anything from super dry, Western of course to very urban when you get into your heavily populated communities, again and then looking almost for a forest-type situation.

Can you explain the relationship between the Cherokee Film Commission and your office, the Film + Music office?

Yeah, so Cherokee Film, the film offices are based in Tulsa. They have been an amazing player in the film space here in Oklahoma. We’ve had a relationship with them for several years. On the film side, they saw it as an opportunity to really get indigenous [people] in front and behind the camera because they saw there was a workforce impact that was untapped. They are the only tribe, I believe, in the nation that offers a film incentive. And so they actually took it a step further: They have their own studio space, they have their own film institute where they’re providing education, they have their own content development and then they obviously have an incentive as well. So they’re strong players with us, we do a lot of partnerships with them as well as Tulsa and Oklahoma City because I’d be remiss without saying we’re all women leading these agencies and so we work together really well and we’ve realized we’re stronger and louder together.

What trends are you currently noticing in the kinds of productions that are flocking to Oklahoma?

There’s certainly a lot of chatter about the verticals. We get a lot of calls about them and we qualify them. Really, we qualify everything, your budget just has to be $50,000 [or above] and we qualify it — so we qualify shorts, documentaries and then verticals. We’ve been contacted several times from past clients who actually want to do several [verticals] and set up shop here. Which is what we want, right, we want them to have infrastructure here.

Obviously I think there’s always going to be a trend here because of where we’re located, our landscape, for the Western-type theme. We always get a couple inquiries about that every year. But I think at the end of the day, there’s some amazing stories that come out of Oklahoma and continue to come out of Oklahoma and we always encourage and want those — the Oklahoma stories from Oklahoma storytellers.

Have there been any pivotal moments in the past few years that have really opened up the floodgates in terms of productions coming to Oklahoma?

I would say two things happened kind of at the same time. One, our incentive program went from $8 million to $30 million, and that was in 2021. And that really sends a message to the industry that Oklahoma’s here, we’re ready to be a player. But at the same time, we had private money going into infrastructure. So then we had Cherokee Film open a soundstage. We had Filmmakers Ranch open a soundstage. And then we had Prairie Surf open a soundstage. And so all those things happened pretty much at the same time.

I think it’s critical that you have that private investment, because that legitimizes that it’s a business. It’s not just about the filmmaking process, it is a business. And I think it is important for lawmakers to see that and so we’ve spent a lot of time not just in our office but the leader before me and the leader before her and so many industry stakeholders out there in Oklahoma who have really understood that is the messaging: You have to educate so that lawmakers see it as a part of the infrastructure in Oklahoma. It’s not just the agriculture, it’s not just the aerospace, but film and music is a business.

When productions do come through, what are some of the most interesting economic impacts that you see in the state?

I think when a production comes in and they make something better, that is the best thing that happens: if they come in and they renovate a building, or they buy a new HVAC unit, which has happened before. A recent story is where they [production workers] wanted to use a facility, it was a restaurant, it was getting ready to close. They bought new equipment for the restaurant then this person ended up having not to close their business because they had the stuff in place that they couldn’t afford [before], right? We have heard stories where [production is] using a house for a location and that [homeowner] is maybe in foreclosure and now they’re able to get out of foreclosure. So those are the stories that I love hearing and love sharing because it puts film on a different level, I think, than maybe some other industries are.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.