“St. Louis beats Hollywood” may sound ridiculously boosterish. But that’s exactly what Giggster, the online platform focused on film locations, is now trumpeting in a new study reporting that St. Louis ranks No. 1 for real pay in film-related jobs. That makes it a better option for workers in the industry than No. 2 Austin or No. 3 Minneapolis. Los Angeles? It’s No. 13.
The reason, says St. Louis film commissioner Kelley Hiatt, is simple: Wages for film production work are set by national unions based on the movie’s budget—not the local cost of living. That makes St. Louis a great place for industry workers. “There’s a lot of L.A. people that are actually St. Louis people that moved out to L.A. who have since moved back,” reports Hiatt, herself an L.A. transplant. “They’re like, ‘Oh wait a second, my two bedrooms in Hollywood, I get five of those here.’”
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They’re also finding plenty of work. The Giggster study ranks St. Louis No. 7 for film-related employment growth since 2023, with a 7 percent increase. (Chicago, meanwhile, tumbled 18 percent.) Hiatt credits Missouri’s resurrected film credits for fueling the increase. Spurred in part by a push from John O’Leary, whose 2025 biopic Soul on Fire was filmed here, Missouri lawmakers approved a new set of tax credits for film and TV productions in 2023, resurrecting a program that went dark 10 years ago. The state can now give up to $8 million in tax credits each year for movies and $8 million for episodic television.
But credits can only go so far. As Variety recently reported, productions are increasingly looking not only for financial support, but also for good talent on the ground. Productions are looking for “two key assets” one experienced producer said about filming on location internationally: crew and talent. “Maybe we’ll bring, obviously, the director, producer, maybe a production designer, but we would love to hire all the local talent that we can,” he explained. The story notes that the hospitality aspect is also important, noting that word of mouth spreads quickly in Hollywood.
While the story is focused on international shoots, Hiatt believes the principles still apply domestically—and she’s convinced St. Louis ranks high. She notes that she was just working with a producer for the Discovery Channel who had never been to St. Louis before. “He travels all over the world doing these series for Discovery Channel, and he literally was like, ‘This place rocks!’ Like, ‘This is amazing,’ just from the hospitality aspect,’” she says, explaining that the production found it easy to get access to every location it wanted. She’s determined to make her office at Explore St. Louis a one-stop shop for productions, helping open doors and secure permits. “That goes a long way,” she says.
Further proof that word of mouth is good? Two more mid-sized productions should be setting up here in the coming weeks, and that’s after last summer saw stars like Megan Mullally, Lola Tung, Justin Long, and Lamorne Morris filming here for two different productions (Chasing Summer and Jacob Beats Up Nate, respectively). While Hiatt can’t talk details just yet, she says one of those productions gets underway soon and should be filming on site at both local universities and some public school buildings as well.
“They’ve been here for about a month doing all their pre-production work, so they are finalizing some locations, and they will start cameras rolling at the end of August,” she says. “They’re all crewed up and ready to go.”
