Nina O’Brien and Christianne Lane’s recent paper in Regional Studies examines film industry incentives by U.S. states to promote economic development, a form of program that is now pervasive in the United States. The paper is titled “Effects of Economic Incentives in the American Film Industry: An Ecological Approach.” The paper gives an impression that the presence of such programs is economically positive overall, but its findings are in fact mixed and rather murky. This comment raises a fundamental concern about the coding of the data, a concern which casts doubt on the empirical findings.