Australia is spending millions to lure Hollywood productions. But is it worth it?

In recent years there has been a rush of Hollywood productions in Australia, which is among the most generous countries in the world when it comes to location grants and rebates. Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design

On a Sunday morning in January, traffic in central Sydney ground to a halt. Filming for Universal’s latest blockbuster, The Fall Guy, closed the Harbour Bridge and its surrounding city roads for seven hours.

While never disclosed, the studio paid a rumoured A$1m to the New South Wales government for that day’s shoot. But that is a fraction of what Universal was paid by Australian governments to bring the Ryan Gosling movie to Australia: $30m in cash through the federal location incentive scheme, and a reputed $14.4m thrown in by the NSW government, to ensure The Fall Guy would shoot in Sydney, not Brisbane or Melbourne.