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Disney has earned $272 million in production incentives from the U.K. government, which offers tax breaks for films shot in Britain, according to an analysis of accounts published by The Guardian.
The past few years have seen the company ramp up its productions in the country, specifically at Pinewood Studios, which has welcomed the likes of Star Wars: Episode VII, Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Cinderella, Avengers: Age of Ultron and several other major titles from Disney’s Marvel.
Read more Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Heading to UK’s Pinewood Studios
Introduced in 2007, the Creative Sector Tax Relief scheme allows film projects with a budget greater than $32 million to claim back up to 20 percent of their production costs. Qualifying films must spend 25 percent of their budget in the U.K., with 70 percent of their labor costs going to European workers.
Read more UK’s Pinewood Shepperton Gets Approval for $340 Million Expansion
According to the report, Disney has spent a total of $2.3 billion on filmmaking in the U.K. since the incentives scheme was launched, with a high of $531 million last year, around 18 percent of its overall international spend. Last year, it claimed back $81 million, believed to be the largest ever to a single studio, a third of which was accounted to Thor: The Dark World, another Marvel title shot in Pinewood. Disney has already spent more than $180 million on Star Wars: Episode VII and Avengers: Age of Ultron alone, according to the accounts.
Disney couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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