Screen Daily World of Studios
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Mexico, Thailand, and Morocco are racing to expand their studio infrastructure, each reshaping their screen industries through a mix of incentives, training, and strategic investment. In the process they are transforming local talent pools, attracting global projects, and redefining regional filmmaking power.
In 1996, when James Cameron and 20th Century Fox went hunting for a coastline to build the world of Titanic they inadvertently reshaped Mexico’s film landscape. Rosarito, once a small fishing town, saw hotels, vendors, and real estate spring up around the prefab studio overnight.
“That’s what detonated the film boom in Baja,” says Luisa Gómez de Silva, who got her break assisting on the production and went on to produce All Is Lost (2013) and Paramount+ shows Lady Scorpions and Kung Fu Games (both 2024) at the facility.
“Most of the technical crew came from Mexico City, and most didn’t speak English. Those of us from the border did speak English but lacked technical experience, so we learned from each other. Many who started as maintenance workers are now gaffers, key grips, carpenters, decorators, costume designers, and sound mixers working internationally. They call us the ‘Titanic generation’.”
Before Titanic, Mexico’s major studio infrastructure was concentrated in Mexico City -primarily at 80-year Estudios Churubusco. Baja Studios created a new production hub hosting Tomorrow Never Dies, Pearl Harbour, Master and Commander, and more.
In the last decade, new stages such as Estudios GGM and Maravilla Studios have opened around the capital but the infrastructure isn’t evenly distributed. When Baja Studios closed in 2023 for refurbishment, water‑tank‑dependent productions had nowhere comparable to go. (The studio recently reopened its water tank and office spaces). Several projects relocated abroad, including biblical drama Mary which ultimately shot at Atlas Studios in Morocco.
Seeing Mexico as a strategic hub for Latin America, in part due to its proximity to Los Angeles, streamers have begun to decentralise production beyond the capital.
“A vast majority of the economy and population is in the Mexico City area but culturally important cities exist across the country,” explains Francisco Ramos, Netflix VP Content for Latin America. “We’ve brought productions to more than 50 cities in 25 [of 32] states so far. Previously, we’d only go for a day or two for a location. Now we’re setting entire stories elsewhere.”
Mexico was home to Netflix first local-language original outside of the US (Club of Crows / Club de Cuervos in 2015. “Until then, the industry mostly produced either indie features or telenovelas, all produced in‑house by broadcasters. Those networks had studio infrastructure, but the ecosystem wasn’t built to sustain a modern production environment with incentives and recurring high‑end work.”
In 2018, when miniseries La Casa de las Flores (The House of Flowers) shot in Guadalajara Netflix had to import heads of department. On successive projects, more of the crew were local.
“There’s a snowball effect as talent relocates,” he says. “People used to feel their careers couldn’t take off unless they moved to Mexico City. Now, with production happening locally, that’s changing. We’re seeing private companies wanting to build stages in Guadalajara, and Monterrey. When we start producing in a new city, infrastructure follows.”
Todd Haynes recently directed Pedro Pascal in period romance De Noche for Christine Vachon’s Killer Films in Guadalajara.
At the same time, Netflix is investing $2m into Churubusco to improve facilities. “We want to help make it a place where we, our competitors, and independent producers can work, and bring it closer to state-of-the-art standards,” he says. “It’s similar to how we operate in the U.S. and UK: making studios not only modern but sustainable.”
Other regions are still developing. South of the country, around Mérida in Yucatán for example, offers striking locations but limited crew. “Pretty much 95% had to be outsourced,” says Gómez de Silva of period drama Pedro Pan currently in production with Andy García and Paz Vega. “We brought equipment and crew from Mexico City and Baja.”
For years, Mexico’s only financial incentive was a VAT reimbursement – “helpful, but not competitive” says Gómez de Silva. Jalisco broke ground with a 20% cash rebate, drawing streamer productions to Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta.
Now, a 30% national tax credit is finally in place. “It’s not the cash rebate producers hoped for, but it’s a major step forward,” she says. Productions must spend at least 40m pesos (about $2.3m) and can receive up to that amount back, provided 70% of the budget is spent in Mexico. “Rules of operation are expected soon, and producers are already budgeting with the incentive in mind.”
With a $1bn investment over four years (2025-2028) Netflix aims to increase output beyond 20 titles a year and to push domestic production to a higher level of quality.
“Alongside the investment, our public policy teams are working with state and federal governments, and with industry associations to upskill talent,” Ramos says. “If we have the best studios, the best post‑production, the best VFX, but not extraordinary writers, directors, producers, production designers, then the industry can’t scale.”
Proximity to the U.S. is a huge advantage, says Ramos helping Mexico develop faster than the rest of Latin America.
“If we make more high‑end series and films, the kind the market couldn’t previously execute, then in five years, people won’t even realise how much the industry has levelled up. Producing something like The Crown requires extraordinary craft and scale. Very few countries can do that. But long‑term thinking pays off.”
Thailand
Until the 2020s Thailand’s film and TV industry largely catered to a domestic market with occasional Hollywood productions like The Deer Hunter (1978), Good Morning Vietnam (1986) and The Beach (2000) flying in to shoot locations.
“After those early international productions, filmmakers and producers advised that Thailand needed more advanced studio facilities,” explains Sujitra Jampathong, Acting Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs and Corporate Communications at The Studio Park. “Directors and cinematographers told us they required high-quality sound stages. So in 2018, we built Thailand’s first international-standard sound stage studio.”
Netflix action feature Extraction (2020) was the first major project to shoot at the facility near Bangkok “which helped demonstrate that Thailand could support large-scale international productions.”
It boasts five soundstages including Thailand's largest at 2,400 sqm, and recently housed Disney sci-fi series Alien: Earth – just one of 546 international productions hosted by the country last year, according to the Thailand Film Office. Nearly half of those were commercials shoots and 6.6% were features generating a record 7.7 billion THB ($233m) of which the US contributed over 56%. A 30% cash rebate effective from January 2025 is one factor in the boom.
“Thailand has a decades-long legacy as a top global filming destination and over the years, the production industry learned from and adopted international production standards,” says Malobika Banerji, Snr Director, Content, SEA for Netflix. “This has spurred the growth of local production infrastructure and technical expertise.”
Netflix invested $200m in local content between 2021 to 2024, employing more than 13,500 cast and crew across Thailand. More than 33 Thai titles have charted Netflix’s global top 10.
It has funded 500 people through an entry level training program and also established a training scheme to “level-up” professionals to “meet the growing needs of the local production industry. “In Thailand, our sessions have focused on script supervision, sound design, and VFX,” Banerji says. Its 2026 release slate includes director Taweewat Wantha’s My Dearest Assassin.
More space is being built: Bangkok Studios is a 185,806 sqm development which aims to establish a “pivotal hub” in the global entertainment industry.
“It’s important that we continue to build more high-quality soundstages in Thailand,” asserts Gong Suphanakhan, Director, Production Management for Netflix in the region. “These are increasingly essential to the growth of local productions as they enable more sustainable and efficient ways of working. They help lower the industry’s environmental footprint by reducing travel, and allow for greater control during filming which minimises fixes in post-production.”
Morocco
Productions like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey usually come to Morocco for the exteriors but increasing global demand for studio space is being seized on by producer Khadijah Alami to base more work in the country.
Alami founded Oasis Studios in Ouarzazate in the same region as Atlas Studios (xxxx) and plans to build another 1,000 sqm stage, plus a backlot and standing sets with ancillary facilities.
She is also leading a €70m ($80.4m) project to build a 80 hectare complex located between Rabat and Casablanca. Construction on Argan Studios is expected to begin in May and the first stages operational early 2027.
“In Morocco, productions tend to go to the US, UK, or Europe to shoot interiors on soundstages,” Alami says. “We lose that part of the business. So the goal is to build proper, high-standard stages so productions can do everything here: stages, standing sets, and locations.”
The 30% cash rebate on eligible spend introduced in 2022 is “one of the easiest in the world to access,” she claims. “You need to spend €1m ($1.14m) and shoot for 18 days - no cultural tests or complicated criteria. Every production that has applied has received reimbursement without delays. Foreign productions can open a temporary bank account in Morocco without registering an SPV locally. Once the account is open, VAT exemption is granted within 48 hours. Productions control their own funds, and the rebate is paid directly into their account—no commissions, no intermediaries. Put all that together, and Morocco becomes significantly more cost‑effective than Europe.”
Alami envisions Argan Studios as a model that can be replicated in other parts of Morocco and across the continent. There are tentative initiatives in Ghana and Tanzania, backed by actor and producer Idris Elba to build West and/or East African filmmaking hubs based around new studios from scratch.
“Idris’s project in Ghana is a good initiative but what Africa needs—and what Morocco has—is government involvement and a national strategy,” Alami says.
Aside from studio infrastructure, she says there needs to be a clear permitting system, financial facilities, training programmes, political stability and a long‑term vision.
“Morocco’s advantage is decades of experience. Our crews have worked with productions from all over the world. Even if they don’t speak the language, they know the craft. Training on the ground is what matters most.”
Alami is on the advisory board of Next Narrative Africa Fund which supports African content. One of her goals is to create a network between African countries. “For example, if Ghana has a film but lacks crew, they could bring Moroccan crew to train their teams on site—or send their trainees to Morocco,” she explains. “But governments need to collaborate to make these programmes possible.”
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