Our View: A Hollywood flop that cost Mass. taxpayers dearly | CPT PPP Coverage

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One of the biggest movie hits of 2021 was supposed to be “Don’t Look Up,” headlined by a star-studded cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep.

If you live around here and you saw it, you may remember two scenes.

In one, Lawrence’s character is detained by police at a bucolic college campus. That scene was shot on the quadrangle at Wheaton College in Norton.

In another, Lawrence’s character flirts with a character played by Hollywood heartthrob Timothee Timothee Chalamet. Filming for that scene took place at Chris Gasbarro’s Fine Wine & Spirits in North Attleboro.

But unless you watched it on Netflix, you probably didn’t see “Don’t Look Up,” a parable for climate change in which a meteor destroys the Earth. The film, with a budget of $75 million, earned only $800,000 at the box office.

But the producers didn’t lose their shirt — thanks to the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

Due to the state’s generous film tax credit program, which provides an incentive for movies shot in Massachusetts, taxpayers gave the producers of “Don’t Look Up” $46.4 million, according to a report in The Boston Globe.

That outrageous tax credit should make Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature rethink the program. Massachusetts’ gift to the film’s producers nearly covered the combined $50 million salaries of the movie’s two lead actors, Lawrence and DiCaprio.

Launched in 2006 and made permanent three years ago, the film tax program provides a 25% payroll credit for any project that spends more than $50,000 within Massachusetts.

Under changes approved by the Legislature in 2021, productions that spend more than 75% of their total budget in the state, or film at least 75% of the time in Massachusetts, are also eligible for a production credit and a sales tax exemption.

Supporters say the program is a job-creator for local tradespeople while supporting businesses in ways that are not fully captured in state data.

“When they come in, they spend money like drunken soldiers,” House Speaker Ron Mariano told the Globe, referring to the film productions.

But the effectiveness of the program is questionable. The most recent report on what the program generates is for 2017. More reliable data showing the effectiveness of the credit is a must if this program is to continue.

The Legislature made the program permanent in 2021, despite the objections of then governor Charlie Baker, who wanted to kill or scale back the credits. A state commission agreed with Baker’s conclusion that the program was an inefficient use of taxpayer money, noting that the state paid $100,000 for every job created.

The program survived, however.

A single film’s billionaire Hollywood producers and stars took in $46.4 million in Massachusetts taxpayer money to produce a flop that few people saw.

That’s certainly an inefficient use of taxpayer money.

And it shouldn’t happen again.