Hollywood East: Screen Gems and Wilmington's Film Industry

In nineteen eighty-four, Italian film producer Dino DeLaurentiis opened a movie studio in Wilmington, drawn by the region's coastal scenery, its variety of landscapes, its proximity to the East Coast's major cities, and, crucially, North Carolina's generous film incentive program. Nobody was sure it would work. What followed surprised everyone.

DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group Studios, later sold and renamed EUE slash Screen Gems Studios, became one of the largest television and film production complexes outside of California. Hundreds of film, television, and commercial projects have been shot there. Locals took to calling the city Wilmywood.

The early productions were B-movies and genre pictures: Firestarter, Maximum Overdrive, Blue City. But the complex grew. The nineteen nineties brought Dawson's Creek, one of the first major television series to plant a full production in the region. By the two thousands the roster had expanded to include One Tree Hill, Under the Dome, Sleepy Hollow, We're the Millers, and The Conjuring. At its peak, the local film economy employed tens of thousands of North Carolinians in production, logistics, catering, construction, and transportation.

North Carolina's film incentive program was reduced significantly in twenty fifteen, and the volume of production dropped. But the studio complex remained. Cinespace acquired the facility in twenty twenty-three and continues operating it.

The film industry's presence in Wilmington changed the city's identity in ways that are still working themselves out. The production infrastructure is real: soundstages, equipment suppliers, a trained local crew base. Wilmington is genuinely a place where movies get made. That is not something most cities can say.