The new facility marks a decisive shift in the country’s entertainment landscape. With Texas investing $1.5 billion in film incentives over

the next decade and housing the state’s largest studio facility, industry experts believe Hollywood’s traditional dominance could face

unprecedented disruption. For American audiences and workers, the changes could mean new stories—and new jobs—originating far from Los Angeles.

 

 

Sheridan’s SGS Studios, created in partnership with Paramount Pictures and developer Hillwood, has established a 450,000-square-foot production campus in Fort Worth’s AllianceTexas development. The two-building complex includes six sound stages, supporting up to four major productions at once, and making it the largest operating film studio in Texas, The Dallas Morning News reported.

 

 

The project launched officially in March with Landman season 2 and is already scheduled to host further productions such as Lioness, as well as spinoffs The Madison and the tentatively titled Rio Palo. The campus will also be available to outside projects, with further expansions planned to accommodate more productions and sound stages in the coming years.

Fueled by a new Texas law allocating $1.5 billion over 10 years to attract film and TV work, the region is positioning itself as a formidable contender for large-scale production, especially as Hollywood navigates prolonged industry disruptions. Hillwood’s $65 million investment in the facility and planned educational partnerships aim to boost local employment and training for film professions.

 

 

“SGS Studios isn’t just about sound stages or tax incentives—it’s about reclaiming the independence and grit that built this industry in the first place,” Sheridan said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “Texas offers something rare: the space to dream big, the freedom to build fast and a community that still believes storytelling matters.”

“Texas actually did rival Hollywood, years ago,” he told Newsweek. “In the early days of American cinema, film production in New Jersey, New York and Chicago was hindered by short winter days, so places like Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and especially San Antonio, Texas, saw a fair amount of film production: they offered warm climates year-round and a varied topography. Star Films (run by the brother of famous filmmaker Georges Méliès) shot any number of Western and other films in Texas.”

 

 

Ardoin added that while “Hollywood eventually won out, you can see the panic there now, as everyone up to the governor of California is talking about—maybe too-late—ways to save an industry that’s chased tax incentives to Canada, Europe and especially other American states, like Oklahoma, New Mexico and Georgia.”

“Texas actually did rival Hollywood, years ago,” he told Newsweek. “In the early days of American cinema, film production in New Jersey, New York and Chicago was hindered by short winter days, so places like Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and especially San Antonio, Texas, saw a fair amount of film production: they offered warm climates year-round and a varied topography. Star Films (run by the brother of famous filmmaker Georges Méliès) shot any number of Western and other films in Texas.”

Ardoin added that while “Hollywood eventually won out, you can see the panic there now, as everyone up to the governor of California is talking about—maybe too-late—ways to save an industry that’s chased tax incentives to Canada, Europe and especially other American states, like Oklahoma, New Mexico and Georgia.”

Richard Allen—Emmy Award winning professor of film, television and digital media at Texas Christian University, which is located in Fort Worth—said the studio alone won’t threaten Hollywood. That being said, “the fact that technology has globalized media accessibility so widely—and that cities like Atlanta, Chicago and Fort Worth are able to become legitimate hubs of production—THAT threatens the centrality and dominance of Hollywood as the absolute mecca of the entertainment industry.”

Claire Sisco King—professor of communication studies and chair of cinema & media arts and theatre at Vanderbilt University, who wrote the book Mapping the Stars: Celebrity, Metonymy, and the Networked Politics of Identity—argued, however, that although “Sheridan’s SGS Studios will be physically located outside of California, it is important to note that this venture is not removed from the Hollywood industry because this deal is happening through Paramount Pictures, which is a legacy Hollywood studio in the United States that is anchored in California.”

“While Hollywood is the primary locus of the entertainment industry in the United States, productions for films and television series happen in a variety of locations around the country,” King told Newsweek. “Such productions are often incentivized by tax breaks or other financial opportunities; decisions to shoot in particular locales can also be driven by the topography and/or climate of the area.”