The California film tax incentive works for LA, but not the rest of the state.
The City of Angels and its surrounding countryside, mountains, beaches and deserts have stood in as “Location Doubles” for places across the globe. If you want to film an external scene in Manhattan (but your cast and crew are all in LA) and you know a street corner in downtown LA which looks like NYC, then it saves money to stay in southern California.
That’s a no-brainer and has been happening since motion pictures began.
But, here’s the thing: those of you with the major million dollar budgets (and even those of you without this), when you go film somewhere outside of the LA "zone," you always have a massive, long-lasting economic impact on the area you visit.