KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City's film production scene reached new heights in 2025, generating an estimated $24.3 million regional economic impact.
The success story includes local businesses like Gates BBQ, where Beatrice Hooker, a supervisor, experienced the industry's benefits firsthand.
The famous restaurant served as both a filming location and provided Hooker with work as an extra for the upcoming season of Ted Lasso.
“A lot of people fight for this area right here,” Hooker said.
Hooker was talking about the corner table where a scene from "Ted Lasso" was shot.
The corner is not the only part of Gates BBQ to appear in the show. Hooker will be featured.
“That was a blessing,” she said. “I work for my company, so I got paid twice.”
They are part of a record-setting year for the Kansas City film industry.
Much of that success starts with Rachel Kephart, the visionary behind the Kansas City Film Office.
“It’s kind of emotional,” Kephart said. “Every time a project comes through, I know this is going to mean jobs. This is going to mean people being able to pay their mortgage and send their kids to daycare.”
The estimated regional economic impact includes all kinds of production spending in the area.
“Payments, equipment rentals, housing, catering, carpentry, lighting, a million trips to Home Depot,” Kephart said.
She said much of the success is thanks to Missouri’s film incentives, which offer tax credits to film and television productions.
The purpose of the Motion Media Production Tax Credit is to recruit qualified production projects to film and conduct post-production in Missouri.
It offers production tax credits worth 20% to 42% of their qualifying expenses to encourage filming in the state.
His business, Lucky Duck Camera House, rents equipment to productions and has indirectly benefited from the state program. He says it was his company's best year.
“The rebates encourage these out-of-town productions to use local resources and local crew, which, in the end, benefits us,” he said. “We’ve been hoping for it, and to finally see it happen before our eyes has been so exciting.”
The city says the local film incentive program also helps attract film productions.
In the last two years, Kansas City has been involved with more than 15 major productions, including 11 feature films and three television series.
They are already working on plans for 2026.
“There’s a lot of people calling and showing interest in bringing their productions to Kansas,” Commons said.
Beatrice is also planning for next year.
“We’re going to do a watch party for when season 4 of Ted Lasso comes out.”
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KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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