Universal Discounts Rent at Nine Sound Studios

ORLANDO-Universal Orlando property management executives this week are heading for Salt Lake City, UT to scout the annual Sundance Film Festival event for prospective tenants at their nine largely vacant sound studios.

The theme park officials will be offering independent producers unprecedented steep rent discounts–$500 a day for a sound studio that normally rents for $2,600. On a 21-day shoot, for example, producers could save $44,100 in rent.

To get the discounted rent, producers need a film budget of $5 million or less and agree to hire 80% of their crew from Florida. For small producers, working out of sophisticated sound studios such as Univeral’s properties instead of a barn or abandoned warehouse, could spell the success or failure of their venture, industry film watchers in Central Florida tell GlobeSt.com.