Is Netflix undermining Iowa’s bid to become Hollywood of the Midwest?

‘If you build it, they will come.”

That line isn’t just the most iconic quote from the most iconic movie ever filmed in Iowa — Field of Dreams.

It’s also a good description of how our state approaches economic growth: create opportunity and trust that success will follow.

In 2025, Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds embraced that philosophy by modernizing business tax incentives. This overhaul will direct tax credits to companies of all sizes as they make the investments and innovations Iowa needs to build a diversified, future-ready economy.

These incentives apply not only to heavy hitter industries like software development, chip manufacturing, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals, but also to film production. Reynolds’ signature created a new two-year pilot program for Iowa-based studios that do all their filming and production right here in the Hawkeye State. The minimum budget for a movie to be eligible is just $1 million, meaning plenty of independent filmmakers will be able to get in on the action.

These movies won’t just create Iowa jobs, they’ll also expose our state’s beauty to a national audience. Soon, thanks to this tax credit, a whole new generation of Americans will find themselves asking, “Is this heaven?”

But projects like this depend on one simple ingredient: competition.

That’s why I’m so concerned about growing consolidation in the film industry.

Deals like Netflix’s planned acquisition of Warner Bros.’ Discovery gives a few megacorporations outsized control over streaming platforms, user data, and content libraries. It enables them to determine what kinds of movies and shows get made.

In a highly concentrated ecosystem like this, the tiny Iowa film industry will struggle to survive, even with generous state tax credits. Instead of stories that reflect this country’s true regional and cultural richness, we’ll get the continuation of an endless deluge of slop that’s been focus-grouped to death by corporate investors and DEI consultants.

Stranger Things is set in Iowa, but its shallow nostalgia, woke identitarian obsessions, and Georgia filming locations make it clear that the setting is purely superficial. This is some Hollywood executive’s idea of Iowa, not the real Iowa in which Death of a Brewer was filmed and set and where you and I can still go visit the baseball diamond of Field of Dreams.

Fortunately, Sen. Chuck Grassley is Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and oversees the proposed Netflix expansion plan. He has been a strong enforcer of antitrust law in the past, so he will almost assuredly carefully examine this proposed acquisition for potential antitrust law violations that can negatively affect Iowa’s creators.

The state of Hollywood is a travesty, but it’s also an opportunity. People are hungry for alternatives. Sure, the big studios own all the valuable IP (Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter) but they’ve beaten it to death with endless spinoffs and remakes. And sure, they can afford to hire big name actors, but movie stars don’t fill the seats the way they used to (with the possible exception of Tom Cruise). The time is ripe for independent filmmakers to tell people fresh new stories about their own hometowns. With the help of innovative AI tools that make editing and effects cheap and easy, tax credits like Iowa’s, and Hollywood’s ongoing self-sabotage, we can reboot entrepreneurial filmmaking like never before.

If we build it, the audiences will come. But if Netflix gobbles up the entire streaming industry, things will get worse rather than better.

However, with the Iowa General Assembly’s continuing leadership to enact pro-growth film policies — and leaders like Grassley policing the industry for signs of monopolization — the continued vertical integration of the film industry seems unlikely. It is my hope that Sen. Grassley will block the acquisition of Discovery and that Iowa will continue leading the way in steering the entertainment industry back to its former greatness and moral foundation. We will have our Iowa leaders to thank.

Steve King served in the U.S. Congress in Iowa’s 4th District from 2003 to 2021.