Film Accounting Glossary
Spend
What is spend?
Also called local spend, or production spend.
Spend is total production expenditure in a jurisdiction, and it is the base on which most incentive calculations are performed after qualified and non-qualified amounts are sorted.
Programs set minimum spend thresholds a production must exceed to claim at all, and caps beyond which no further credit accrues. Because the definition of spend is program-specific, the same ledger can produce meaningfully different spend figures in two jurisdictions.
Example
A program with a $500,000 minimum and a $10M cap treats a show spending $400,000 locally as claiming nothing at all, and a show spending $14M as claiming on $10M. The same ledger produces different spend figures in two jurisdictions.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
The base every incentive calculation is performed on, after qualified and non-qualified amounts are separated.
Common mistake
Reporting one spend figure across two jurisdictions. Each program defines spend differently, so the same ledger produces different qualifying totals.
Related questions
- What is a minimum spend threshold?
- The amount a production must spend in a jurisdiction before it can claim at all. Below it the claim is zero rather than proportionally reduced.
- Do incentive programs cap spend?
- Many do, either per project or across the program's annual pool, so spend above the cap earns no further credit.