From January to June, 2005, Innovation Insight performed a survey of production activity in the film and entertainment industry for the Metro Orlando Film and Entertainment Commission, a division of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. The statistics provided in this report are based upon a combination of direct survey of metro Orlando film, digital media and entertainment companies, and a corporate database provided by InfoUSA and Elsevier’s Nexis for the Commission. The methodology utilized was a continuation of the 2002 productivity study performed for the Commission by Innovation Insight.

Combined Statistics: In 2004, the metro Orlando film and entertainment industry supported at least 383 companies with an estimated 3,400 direct employees, generating an estimated $845.5 million in combined sales revenue. The region supported over 2,547 local hires and 9,732 production days in 2004.

There is evidence that the metro Orlando film and entertainment industry is shifting toward national and international commercial, video, episodic, and digital content and format projects. However, the capacity to identify and compete for these projects probably requires a minimum size and resource base. Smaller companies may be limited to competing in declining markets in film and music, or commoditization of CD-ROM production. These companies report declining revenues.

Typical Company: The typical (median) Orlando-area film and entertainment company employs approximately 2 employees, and generates approximately $250,750 in annual sales revenue. Companies that participated in the Production Activity Survey reported a median 10 local hires per company and 100 production days in 2004. Although the overall industry sector showed growth from the 2002 survey, this year’s study found that smaller companies did not share equally in the growth as medium- and large-sized companies and this is reflected in these “typical company” statistics.

This report is available for download here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. Additional information is available from the Metro Orlando Film Commission.