Paramount Skydance signs 10-year lease for N.J.’s 1888 Studios. Gov. Murphy says move solidifies state as ‘global powerhouse.’

Another big film and TV studio is settling into New Jersey.

Paramount Skydance has just signed a 10-year lease for Bayonne’s 1888 Studios.

Paramount is set to occupy more than 285,000 square feet of the planned 58-acre facility, which will have 1.1 million square feet of production space and 23 smart sound stages.

Among the amenities promised at 1888 Studios: lighting and and grip facilities, offices, postproduction space, a five-story parking garage and 22-acre water backlot.

Why is the studio called 1888?

That’s the year Thomas Edison filed a preliminary patent for an early motion picture camera.

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Edison opened Black Maria, the first film studio, in West Orange in 1893. Later, he opened Edison Studios.

Funnily enough, it was Edison’s trust with George Eastman — which charged licensing fees to use cameras made by Edison and film from Eastman Kodak — that drove filmmakers and the New Jersey-based movie industry to Hollywood in the first place.

The architecture firm Gensler designed 1888 Studios “to evoke the imagery of Golden Age Hollywood,” per an announcement of the Paramount lease.

In renderings of the studio released in 2022, palm trees accompany the Hollywood-flavored architecture.

The announcement touted New Jersey’s tax incentives for film and TV production.

Those incentives have increasingly driven both large studio titles and indie films to the Garden State. In 2024, productions spent $833 million in New Jersey, which was a new high.

“Thanks to highly competitive tax credit programs like New Jersey’s, the tri-state area is more attractive than ever before for production as we work together to create new jobs and empower more domestic production for America’s creative workforce,” Andy Gordon, chief strategy officer and chief operating officer for Paramount, said in a statement.

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The company Togus Urban Renewal is developing 1888 Studios.

“By keeping American productions at home, the project, which will be constructed by union workers, will generate thousands of jobs and additional opportunities for New Jersey’s small businesses,” Arpad “Arki” Busson, chairman of Togus Urban Renewal, said in a statement, calling New Jersey “a true cornerstone of global production.”

Gov. Phil Murphy said the commitment from Paramount reflects “the incredible momentum of our state’s creative sector, solidifying our reputation as a global powerhouse in the entertainment industry.”

In 2018, Murphy reinstated New Jersey’s film tax credit program after former Gov. Chris Christie let the program expire and vetoed bills that would’ve revived the production incentives.

Jimmy Davis, mayor of Bayonne, called the studio a welcome addition to the city’s “ongoing renaissance.”

“This is a big win for Bayonne, Hudson County, and the state of New Jersey,” he said in a statement.

State Sen. Raj Mukherji emphasized the projected job growth.

“This once-in-a-generation, multibillion-dollar studio project will anchor a self-sustaining creative economy in Hudson County, create thousands of good-paying construction and permanent union jobs, and generate powerful multiplier effects,” he said as part of the announcement.

Paramount Skydance and 1888 Studios joins other New Jersey film and TV studios in the works.

They include a studio to be leased by Lionsgate at the former Seth Boyden Court public housing complex in Newark‘s South Ward and a Netflix studio at the former Fort Monmouth, which is anticipated to open in 2028.