They feared that the productions could worsen a rise in prices the city had seen after a wave of remote workers moved to Montana during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We don’t like outsiders unless you have a really good reason to be in town,” Layne said. “This is our town; we love our people.”

But as filming continued, she and others said, many people changed their minds.

Many worry that the state will lose out on productions in the future unless lawmakers increase and extend the tax credit to keep pace with states like Texas that have larger tax credits.

Lynn-Wood Fields, a filmmaker and president of the Montana Media Coalition, an industry group, said she hoped lawmakers would raise the $12 million cap next year.

“I’m very concerned that all of this workforce that we’ve created is going to go away,” Fields said. “We don’t just have a housing crisis, we have a wage crisis, and I really think film is the solution.”

Senate Bill 326