Since the launch of the Babs Do Studios website, the state of Babs Do Studios has continued to progress forward with continued outreach and industry interest. While some are waiting to see how the campaign for Nevada’s Film Tax Incentive Expansion Bill goes in 2025, we have continued to develop our building plan for Babs Do Studios, especially in light of new events.
Warner Bros. & Las Vegas Media Campus Merge
Warner Bros. has entered into an agreement to merge with the Las Vegas Media Campus development with a new $8.5 Billion Dollar budget for building and production commitments. Other than renaming Nevada Studios into “Warner Bros. Studios Nevada”, the development remains the same. Sony will continue on with their Summerlin studio campus so this move now diversifies the work load coming in with two studios’ worth of intellectual properties. Both developments are still estimated to not break ground until 2027 and possibly as late as 2029 by some estimates.
However, it has been stated that in order for these developments to move forward, the 2025 Film Tax Incentive Expansion Bill must pass with the assumption that if it doesn’t then both studios will not move forward with building in Las Vegas.
Babs Do Studios is not dependent on the status of Nevada’s film tax incentives but remains supportive for the sake of Nevada film communities, schools, and the greater economy of the state. The potential of working alongside Warner Bros. and Sony is also an exciting thought. Just as Hollywood studios share their resources and work alongside each other, we hope to have a working relationship with both studios if their developments move forward. Additional film tax incentives would directly benefit Babs Do Studios as well in terms of not only film production but also in our own building plans for Las Vegas and expanding our studio facilities across the state in Phase II and III.
Still, in terms of development scale with the anticipated number of stages, facilities, and locations, as well as a much faster building timeframe, Babs Do Studios still has a major working advantage over the Las Vegas Media Campus and with in-house production and animation departments with Babs Do Productions, we will have our own creative intellectual properties to build upon as well.
Sony Buys Alamo Drafthouse
Sony has purchased the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain, making it the first studio to purchase a movie theater business since the ending of the long held Paramount Consent Decrees in 2020 that prevented studios from owning theaters.
While Babs Do has had thoughts about doing something similar at one point, the focus on building up high quality film and media projects for audiences with its studios outweighed the potential of “being first” with such a move, so to speak. It remains to be seen how Sony will innovate the movie theater experience with their acquisition and we are confident that if any company could, it would be the leading technological innovators at Sony.
New Builder Option for Babs Do Studios
As we continue to research new opportunities and innovations for Babs Do Studios, we have come across a new builder for our development with exciting design options for offices and additional facilities for our studios. With building quotes in line with our modular sound stages, we now have a new additional resource to provide for facilities in our studio campus design.
Las Vegas Commercial & Industrial Opportunities
Over the summer, the market for potential properties for Babs Do Studios has heated up with many new offerings across Nevada. Various developments that have been in the building stages since last year are now becoming available and some interesting older properties have come to market at the same time. With this change in the number offerings, we have been adjusting our scalable budget and building plans accordingly for the potential these pre-existing options provide to augment our main studio campuses with.
In Summary
We are proud to be a part of the film studio boom that is happening for Las Vegas and with multiple studios now throwing their hats in the ring, we will continue to work harder than ever to get Babs Do Studios built as soon as possible. The Film Tax Incentive Expansion Bill should be seeing more updates in February 2025 and we will be watching to see how the campaign goes for the bill and whether it passes or not.
Still, with the Warner Bros. announcement and merger with the Las Vegas Media Campus, there is hope that there is now an even greater chance that investors will want to move quickly into funding Babs Do Studios before 2025 in order to lock in their investment with the first phase of our development in Las Vegas. As September has just started, investors should note that February is 5 months away and, in that time, Babs Do Studios could be up and running with its sound stages nearly completely built by then.
In any case, as notable changes and events keep happening seemingly by the day, Babs Do Studios will keep moving forward and hopefully our next update will be very soon. As always, stay tuned for more!