The Irish based co-production firm of the Netflix global hit Wednesday contributed to movie production companies claiming a record €177m in movie and TV tax credits here in 2025.
New figures provided by the Revenue Commissioners show that the €177m in movie tax credits last year is a 46% increase on the €121.6m paid out in movie tax credits under Section 481 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 in 2024.
Successive Governments have the Section 481 tax relief in place to act as a stimulus to the creation of an indigenous film industry here.
The credit is granted at a rate of 32% of up to €125m and last year, the Irish based co-producers of Wednesday, Metropolitan Films International Ltd, received corporation tax credits of €20m to €60m in two separate tranches for parts one and two of the second series of the global hit.
Based on the Addams Family character created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938, Netflix’s supernatural mystery comedy focuses on the teen years of Wednesday Addams, played by Jenna Ortega.
The first and second season of Wednesday both feature in Netflix’s top five most popular shows of all time.
Wednesday Season 1 is the most watched show with 252 million views while Season 2 shot in Ireland had 119 million views and is ranked at the fourth most popular show of all time.
Giving some indication of the monetary value of Season 2, Parrot Analytics, a data firm, estimate that the first season of Wednesday made $360m in advertising and subscription revenue for Netflix between its release and March of last year.
The first and second parts of Wednesday were released globally in August and September of this year.
Executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have called the filming locations “truly magical”. The settings included Powerscourt Demesne in Enniskerry, Charleville Castle in Co Offaly and Dublin’s atmospheric Deansgrange Cemetery.
The Revenue figures also show that the Irish based co-producers Wild Atlantic Pictures Ltd of Young Washington received movie tax credits between €5m and €10m.
Young Washington stars Kelsey Grammer and Ben Kingsley and is due for release later this year and was shot in north Mayo and around Blessington Lake in Co Wicklow.
Orlaith Fitzgerald, spokeswoman for Screen Producers Ireland, said in response to the record tax credits claimed in 2025: “If you were to point to one thing that has enabled the industry to achieve the successes it has to date, it is the foresight of successive Irish governments to invest in the sector by providing an internationally competitive tax incentive, Section 481, that enables Irish producers and studios go out in to the world and sell our work and our country as a centre of excellence for filmmaking”
“In a global market, Section 481 allows Ireland to compete for international production investment. In the last few weeks the independent production sector welcomed a similar incentive (Section 487a) to unscripted programming,” she said.
“This is the only cultural incentive of its kind in Europe and gives Irish producers the ability to invest in development of new entertainment formats for Irish and European audiences, as well delivering higher quality programming on domestic broadcasters and beyond,” she added.
