NYC Wants Filmmakers Back: New Listening Tour Hits 5 Boroughs

NEW YORK CITY— When “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” was released over the summer, actor Tom Holland said there was no way home for the Queens native superhero. At least, when Sony decided to trade the streets of New York City for Glasgow, Scotland, to film the movie.

“When you shoot in New York, for whatever reason, you can’t shut down streets,” Holland said in an interview.

The studio never applied for filming permits for the latest Spider-Man installment, according to the City.

Spider-Man’s friends, however, did.

“Daredevil,” “The Punisher,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3” all filmed in New York City.

Rafael Espinal, the city’s media and entertainment commissioner, said Holland’s comments echo one of the biggest misconceptions he encounters: filming in New York City comes with unnecessary difficulty and expense.

“We’ve made it very easy,” Espinal told Patch. “[It's] one of the things we can do is ensure that filmmaking stays at the epicenter.”

The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment will meet with filmmakers and producers across the five boroughs this fall as part of its first “Made in New York” Filmmaker Listening Tour.

The meetings will give emerging and established filmmakers a chance to tell City officials what makes filming here easier, and what still gets in the way.

Small crews using handheld cameras generally do not need a permit if they avoid blocking sidewalks, and can submit a letter to the City to notify authorities of the shoot, Espinal said.

Larger productions can obtain permits to close streets and coordinate with police and other city agencies.

A basic permit includes two police officers to supervise a shoot, while productions requiring multiple street closures or traffic diversions must pay for additional officers and enforcement personnel.

The City processed close to 5,500 production permits for 1,760 projects in 2025, according to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

The projects included movies, television productions, commercials and other shoots, with individual productions often requiring multiple permits.

Filming activity has since begun to rebound since the pandemic, and permit numbers have increased about 50 percent this year compared to 2025, Espinal said.

July marked the strongest month for project numbers since before the Hollywood strikes, he said.

But New York faces competition well beyond other U.S. cities.

A recent analysis commissioned by Hollywood unions found the share of major film production spending taking place in the United States fell from 74 percent 25 years ago to 42 percent today.

Television’s domestic share dropped from 94 percent to 64 percent, even as overall production spending grew substantially.

To compete for those productions, New York offers tax incentives to companies that film in the state.

More than $1 billion in film and television tax credits were issued in New York in 2025, according to data from Empire State Development, the state agency responsible for administering economic development programs, including the state’s film tax credit.

The credits reduce the amount of state taxes eligible production companies owe, effectively lowering the cost of filming in New York.

The largest recipients have been major studio and streaming productions, which received tax credits worth tens of millions of dollars, according to reporting by Hell Gate.

The fourth season of “Succession” received about $25 million, while Amazon’s “the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” received more than $43 million, according to the data analyzed by Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog group.

But Espinal said he wants to make the City easier to navigate for filmmakers at every level.

“We need to ensure that New Yorkers who’ve always dreamt of being in the industry see a pathway into that industry,” Espinal said.

Espinal and Deputy Commissioner of the Film Office Kwame Amoaku will lead the listening tour discussions, offering updates on City services, resources and production incentives before opening the floor to filmmakers.

The remaining meetings are:

• Manhattan: Oct. 8, 4:30 to 6 p.m., Regal Union Square, 850 Broadway
• The Bronx: Oct. 28, 5:30 to 7 p.m., Lehman College, 2790 Goulden Ave.
• Staten Island: Nov. 10, 5 to 6:30 p.m., Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 2636 Hylan Blvd.
• Queens: Nov. 13, 2:30 to 4 p.m., Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave.