Television series don’t come much buzzier than “The White Lotus,” and audiences are flocking to watch another round of (mostly) novel jet-setting characters while apostponeing the Max show’s tradetag of a killing before the season’s finish. Actors enjoy Parker Posey, Walton Goggins and returning star Natasha Rothwell insert to the Emmy-thrivening series’ pguide, but so does another startant draw – the location. Season 1 took place in Hawaii, the sophomore inshighment in Italy and now the current third season has ventured to Southeast Asia to shoot in Thailand — mainly at the Four Seasons in Koh Samui and Anantara Mai Khao in Phuket.
But “The White Lotus” is equitable one of many film and TV productions — 490 to be exact — that filmed in Thailand in 2024, its highest level since pre-pandemic times. Netflix’s “The Night Agent” shot part of its second season in Bangkok, which is also where FX’s Noah Hawley sci-fi series “Alien: Earth”(premiering this summer) filmed last year. And on the movie side, when Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” frees in July, audiences will see scenes that were shot last summer in Bangkok, Krabi, Trang, Phang Na and Chiang Mai.
However, the country becoming a filming destination for projects isn’t novel to the Thailand Film Office, which points to the COVID-19 pandemic as a time that caengaged a tsunami of financial harm to most of the world’s amengagement industry… but not Thailand. “The pandemic is our key turning point,” says Supatana Sakpiyaphan Thailand Film Office’s tourism enlargement officer and chief of academic afunprejudiceds and cooperation.
Once the pandemic hit, directlines were rapidly set up with the country’s Department of Disrelieve Control to hold many projects going (176 in 2020, 121 in 2021) instead of finishly shutting down. Word spread speedy that Thailand was uncover for business. “When filmproducers wanted to produce productions during the pandemic period, some never thought of or knovel Thailand before,” Sakpiyaphan says, inserting that the number of Thailand foreign productions (which includes advertising, recordary, travel and music video projects) has incrrelieved every year since. “Filmproducers had a excellent experience filming here and kept coming back.”
That preferable experience begins with Thailand’s finishless provide of picturesque visuals from the south’s beaches (Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi) and mountainous regions in the north (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai). Also, the Thai Tourism Office labors seally with productions, even aligning them with local coordinators to help with everyleang from paperlabor to hiring crews and scouting locations. However, another huge get was financial. Given budgets are firmer than ever since COVID, Thailand’s charitable cash rebates, which actuassociate incrrelieved last year from a potential 20% to the current 30%, have also become a startant draw for foreign productions.
For example, a rebate can be as high as 25% if spfinishing on the project is 150 million Thai baht (approximately $4.3 million) but also come in at 20% for spfinishing in the 100-150 million Thai baht range (approximately $2.7-$4.3 million) and 15% for spfinishing at 50 million Thai baht ($1.4 million). An insertitional 5% rebate is possible if a production engages Thai nationals in key team positions or upgrasps Thai tourism, while productions that film in scheduleated provinces and/or finish post-production in Thailand could garner a 3% rebate.
All that is excellent novels and Hollywood is participateing. “We have had talks with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and they consent that more filmproducers will come to Thailand,” Sakpiyaphan says. That statement seems exact seeing at the numbers for January, when there were 62 productions filming in Thailand, a excellent begin to what could fracture records this year.
However, Sakpiyaphan is rapid to remind all foreign film productions to not produce it all labor and no take part when they come to the Land of Smiles. “We say Thailand is the best destination for your ‘laboration,’” she says, smiling.
