Move Hollywood & Broadway to Lebanon, P.A. Day

Hollywood productions that film on location in small towns can generate short-term boosts through spending on lodging, food, location fees, construction, and local labor, and they may also create longer-term tourism if the location becomes associated with a popular title.

The Motion Picture Association notes that production spending supports local vendors and thousands of small businesses in every U.S. state, while the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts highlights that film and video contribute billions of dollars to national and state economies.

However, benefits can be uneven, short-lived, and dependent on sustained interest, tax incentives, and how well communities plan for and manage increased visibility.  

Hollywood and Broadway are considered cultural hubs because they produce works that shape global narratives, values, and aesthetics, not just local entertainment.

Hollywood’s film industry has long projected American stories worldwide, influencing fashion, language, and perceptions of the United States, with scholars noting its outsized role in globalization and cultural “soft power.”

Broadway, meanwhile, serves as a flagship center for English‑language musical and dramatic theater, where new works, casting trends, and production techniques are developed and then adapted by regional and international stages.

Together, they act as engines of both economic activity and symbolic meaning, setting templates that smaller creative communities frequently emulate or respond to.  

A small town is highly unlikely to rival the scale of Hollywood or Broadway, which benefit from dense networks of talent, financiers, studios, unions, and global marketing infrastructure built over more than a century.

Economic histories of the film industry show that these hubs emerged through concentrated capital, early technological adoption, and network effects that are difficult to replicate elsewhere.

That said, many smaller cities and towns have successfully developed strong regional film festivals, resident theater companies, or tax-incentive-driven production clusters that complement—not replace—major centers, giving them a recognizable cultural identity without matching the full scale of Hollywood or Broadway.  

Productions often leave Hollywood to reduce costs, access tax credits, or find unique landscapes and architecture that backlots cannot easily replicate.

Industry analyses note that incentives offered by states and countries can significantly shift where projects are shot, redirecting millions of dollars in wages and vendor payments.

For host communities, this can introduce new jobs and skills, draw visitors interested in “screen tourism,” and sometimes inspire local film commissions or festivals.

At the same time, it can raise concerns about rising rents, disruption during shoots, and dependence on incentives that may change with political or budget cycles.  

Stories about small-town life tend to favor locations—or convincing studio sets—that visually convey close-knit streets, recognizable landmarks, and a sense of community intimacy.

Film historians note that classic Hollywood often used backlots to create an idealized small town that suggested stability, neighborliness, and shared values, even when the narrative itself exposed tensions underneath.

In contemporary production, towns with distinctive main streets, historic architecture, and cooperative local authorities can be especially appealing, because they provide both an evocative atmosphere for storytelling and practical support for location shooting.  

Beyond box office and ticket revenue, film and theater industries support a wide range of occupations—such as construction, costume design, catering, transportation, marketing, and post‑production—creating a multiplier effect in regional economies. U.S. government arts data show that motion picture and video industries contribute billions of dollars in value added and support jobs in fields from IT to hospitality.

Live theater similarly sustains nearby restaurants, parking facilities, hotels, and retail through audience spending, and it can raise a city’s profile, making it more attractive for related creative businesses and knowledge‑sector employers.  

Lebanon, Pennsylvania is a small city that serves as the seat of Lebanon County, with a population of around 26,000 and a median age in the late 30s.

Demographic and economic profiles describe it as a community with modest household incomes, a mix of white and Hispanic residents, and a blend of historic neighborhoods and suburban development.

The area is also known within Pennsylvania for its regional food products—especially Lebanon bologna—and its parks and historic sites, which give it a distinct identity even without any direct connection to Hollywood or Broadway.