Las Vegas Studio Proposal Backed by Sony and Warner Bros. Dies in Nevada Legislature

A proposal to build a movie studio in Las Vegas died in the Nevada Legislature on Monday night, as lawmakers refused to grant a $95 million annual subsidy.

Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. had teamed up to support Summerlin Studios, a 31-acre facility that would have 10 soundstages. A bill to subsidize the project, AB 238, passed the state Assembly last week but died in the Senate on Monday night.

“People just couldn’t get there,” said Sen. Roberta Lange, who backed a rival studio project in partnership with UNLV. “When we’re cutting other important things like housing, education and health care, it’s really hard to get to a place where people feel comfortable putting a lot of money into something new.”

A similar effort failed in 2023. The Nevada Legislature meets every other year, so the next opportunity to push the project forward won’t come until 2027.

Sony and Warner Bros. were backing rival projects last fall. Sony supported the Summerlin proposal, which would be built by Howard Hughes Holdings. Warner Bros. was aligned with the UNLV proposal, which was slated for a research campus in the southwest area of Las Vegas.

But in February, Warner Bros. switched sides and threw its support behind the Summerlin studio. AB 238, by Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, would have created a $95 million annual tax credit, which would go to film and TV productions shooting at that facility. An additional $25 million would go to support other productions unconnected with the facility.

Lange continued to back the UNLV project, which partnered with Manhattan Beach Studios and Birtcher Development. Her bill, SB 220, did not advance to a floor vote.

Jauregui’s bill passed the Assembly on a narrow 22-20 vote on Friday. It needed to win Senate passage by midnight on Monday, but was not taken up. In the closing hours of the session, Lange offered an amendment calling for an economic study of the issue. That, too, did not get a vote.

“A film tax credit may not be what people want in the end, but there may be something else,” Lange told Variety. “We have to do a study and look at what we can do that fits our state and move forward.”

The rivalry between the two studio projects did not help the cause. From the outset, it was clear to stakeholders that only one — at most — would win approval.

Lange said she spoke to Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, on Monday night, and he was non-committal on the issue, and more focused on winning passage for his own priorities.