Hollywood productions have fallen 36% over the past five years, according to nonprofit Film L.A. While the industry in California may be contracting again this year, Mexico is trying to entice productions with tax incentives and other programs.
Last week, Salma Hayek joined Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to announce a series of new incentives meant to attract productions to Mexico.
"Nobody can compete with us. With this support, we're unmatched. There's no other country in the world that has this level of diversity," Hayek said.
While Hollywood may return to Mexico at some point, Mexican filmmakers aren’t waiting around.
On the set of "La Herencia," or "The Inheritance," a Baja California filmmaker tells the story of a wealthy patriarch who learns of his long-lost daughter from the ghost of his wife.
This novela is thick with drama and intrigue. It is one of many films produced by Emilio Montiel. He didn’t always make movies.
"I used to work in construction. I worked for a company laying carpets and stuff,” Montiel said.
Montiel's movies are not in theaters, and they are not expensive productions. They are not big-budget action films. But they are watched by millions.
"Unfortunately, they earn little, and we don’t have many resources. That's why I make these kinds of movies — low-budget ones — but I try to do the best I can," Montiel said.
Thirty-four of Montiel's movies have more than a million views each on his YouTube channel. They aren’t short either — each runs about 90 minutes — and his most popular has been seen more than 5 million times.
Rory Pendergast is a personal injury lawyer in San Diego. On weekends, he’s one of Montiel's actors.
"You throw money at somebody, they should be able to make something awesome. But when you can do it on a shoestring, and you're speaking, you're communicating something to people out there who feel it. That is cool, right? That is cool," Pendergast said.
Pendergast has played a lawyer in many of Montiel's novelas, but last time he got to play an American in a Mexican prison in the movie "Presidio Infernal," or "Prison Hell."
In 2022, the global economic advisory firm Oxford Economics reported that the Mexican film industry contributed 228.8 billion pesos to the economy. At the current exchange rate, that’s more than $13 billion.
Montiel said that if someone offered him big money to make his movies, he would take it.
He said he'd like to make different movies — for theaters or for television networks in the United States, or for Netflix, or Latin American cinema — but he doesn’t have the money.
But until then, he’ll keep telling stories millions love.
