7 Indisputable Reasons Why New Jersey Is The Future of the Film Industry

Since Socko! debuted a little more than two months ago at the NJ Film Expo, one thing has become exponentially clear: More than any other state in the nation, New Jersey is THE new hub of all things film and television. Evidence: The new mega studios rising. The boom in on-location productions. The home-grown and growing talent. Not to mention the storied, Edison-fueled history. For those that have newly joined us, welcome. Let us catch you up on the rising promise of the Garden State.

On a recent Tuesday in Oceanport, 400 hard hats watched the last steel beam swing into place above Stages 3 and 4 of Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth. The streamer called it a “major milestone.” Afterwards, they celebrated with barbeque.

Netflix has invested $1 billion in 292 acres across Oceanport and Eatontown, to build 12 soundstages that cover nearly 500,000 sq. ft. And that’s just phase one, set to start opening in 2027. And they will have competition. An estimated 1.2 billion in private investment is being pumped into Bayonne’s developing 1888 Studios, where Paramount plans to put down roots. Lionsgate is pouring $125 million into Newark’s South Ward. Smaller but impactful facilities are joining their ranks, including Green Point studios heading to Newark and the just-opened Unlimited Studios in Long Branch.

Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster the-aliens-aren’t-coming-they’re-here film Disclosure Day is mostly set in Virginia and Missouri. But the cinematic master knew there was one place where he could capture the film’s most pivotal settings: A modern television studio, a historic convent, a FBI safehouse. All filmed in New Jersey spots — Newark, Cape May, Morristown — that were more than happy to serve as stand ins.

More than 60 productions were filmed in New Jersey through the state tax incentive program in 2025. That’s up from 43 in 2024, up from 39 in 2023. Q1 2026 alone is on track for more than thirty.

What’s the pull? A 35% tax credit on wages and salaries. 30% on goods and services within 30 miles of midtown Manhattan. A 4% bonus for hiring at least 25% of talent from economically disadvantaged areas. The program is on the books through 2049.

Joining Spielberg in a growing list of directors with projects filmed around the state: Jesse Eisenberg (The Debut), James Ashcroft (Whisper Man), Jason Bateman (The Cackling of the Dodos) - not mention to buzz-worthy series being produced here from Netflix’s The Four Seasons and Rabbit, Rabbit to Peacock’s Crystal Lake.

Chances are your favorite movie of all time features someone who was born and raised in New Jersey. We breed talent here. Meryl Streep. Jack Nicholson. Paul Rudd. Michael B. Jordan.

But it is not just those in front of the camera. It’s behind the camera too, like directors Brian de Palma, Newark. Sean Baker, Summit. Kevin Smith, Redbank. Socko! also delights in spotlighting extraordinary below-the-line talents, like production designer Jane Musky, editor Tim Squyres and gaffer John Valez.

Close your eyes and picture Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal on a path in Central Park surrounded by vivid autumn leaves in When Harry Met Sally. Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze at the pottery wheel in Ghost. The chalkboard in the Premiere Properties office in Glengarry Glen Ross. Always Be Closing.

Those images are all Jane Musky, who has more than sixty films and series to her name. Collaborating with Joel and Ethan Coen, Rob Reiner, Gus Van Sant, Jerry Zucker, Mike Newell, she often leads teams of two hundred. She has been married to actor Tony Goldwyn for thirty-nine years. They met at Williamstown.

Not far from where Musky grew up you’ll also find another legend among those-in-the-know: Editor Tim Squyres.

In 1991, a young Squyres met a quiet director named Ang Lee for what he calls the most forgettable interview ever. Producer Ted Hope had recommended him with a now-famous endorsement. I know a guy who’ll work for cheap. Twelve films later, the partnership has produced The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, Ride with the Devil, Life of Pi, and a small wuxia picture called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that earned Squyres an Oscar nomination, a BAFTA nomination, and an Eddie nod.

And don’t forget John Velez, of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Union member since 1993. He has lit Aronofsky’s Black Swan and The Whale. Spike Lee’s Inside Man. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. Scorsese’s The Irishman. And a small indie called by Zach Braff called Garden State.

There’s one thing you hear about when you’re living in New Jersey. Grit. Determination. Chutzpah. Having a dream and not giving it up. Channeling Thomas Edison or Whitney Houston. Listening to Bruce Springsteen. Or talking to Michael Uslan.

At 14, he watched the campy 1960s Batman TV series at his home in Bayonne and made a vow. He was going to fix it. He was going to give the Dark Knight back his dignity. Most kids forget vows like that by the next commercial break.

Michael Uslan did not forget.

He taught the first college course on comic books in the 1970s when nobody thought they were worth teaching. At 27 he walked into DC Comics and bought the rights to Batman. Then Hollywood told him no. Every studio. Every executive. For ten years.

In 1989, Tim Burton’s Batman opened, and Michael Keaton hurled Jack Nicholson off a skyscraper-sized cathedral and into cinematic history. Uslan has produced ninety-plus films since. The Nolan trilogy. The Joker pictures. National Treasure. He is in the New Jersey Hall of Fame. He is chairman of the New Jersey Film Commission.

It is a Wednesday at Brookdale Community College. Students between the ages of 18 and 61 are slipping into rooms for spring semester. Script to Screen. Hair and Makeup for Film. Assistant Editing. They share two things. They live in New Jersey. They want to work in film production right here at home.

Blue-collar retirees, teachers, new students, seasoned students. Fellow New Jerseyans from every walk of life, each with a story. Wouldn’t it be a gift to tell them together.

Somewhere tonight, on a backlot in West Orange that no longer exists, a man named Fred Ott is sneezing into the first motion picture camera ever built, and the sneeze is echoing down the Garden State Parkway 133 years later, bouncing off every diner sign and oil refinery and boardwalk arcade between Cape May and the George Washington Bridge, and it is landing, right now, on the windshield of a grip truck idling outside a warehouse in Bayonne.

The grip truck does not know it is carrying a ghost. The grip truck does not know it is carrying a god. The grip truck is just waiting for the call.

The call is coming.

After reading Nelson’s thought piece, brush up on the history of the Black Maria, the first film studio ever.

The first-ever film-focused magazine for the state of New Jersey is here.

Socko! It’s an underused adjective that means “stupendous success.” It’s the sound a great story makes when it punches you in the gut. And it’s where you’ll find stories on the people, places, productions and policies that are moving New Jersey into it’s rightful place as the new entertainment industry hub.

Got a story idea or a pitch? Write Editor in Chief Angela Matusik at angela@sockomagazine.com.

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