New season, new incentive: NC offers MrBeast’s Amazon show another $15 million
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- North Carolina approved a $15 million film grant for Beast Games Season 3.
- The state cap for single-season film rebates under the program is $15 million.
- Beast Games reportedly plans to spend at least $60 million in North Carolina.
For the second consecutive year, North Carolina has awarded its largest film incentive for star content creator MrBeast to tape his Amazon Prime reality competition “Beast Games” in his home state.
The N.C. Department of Commerce has approved a $15 million grant for “Beast Games” Season 3, the department told The News & Observer. This is the most the state can offer for one season of television under the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grants, a program launched in 2015 to draw TV and movie productions. The state last year gave a similar $15 million grant for the bulk of “Beast Games” Season 2 to be shot in Eastern North Carolina.
Eligible productions can qualify for 25% expense rebates, capped at $15 million. This indicates Amazon and MrBeast plan to spend at least $60 million in North Carolina for the upcoming season. In 2025, the state distributed nearly $35 million in overall tax breaks to film projects, including the third season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and the fourth season of “Outer Banks.”
Season 3 of “Beast Games” is currently being filmed; on May 24, thousands of MrBeast fans entered East Carolina University’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville to be in the background of an episode. Like many competition shows, “Beast Games” follows contestants through a sequence of challenges for lucrative prizes. Narrative arcs form as players are winnowed until a winner ultimately takes home $5 million.
The show is hosted by Greenville native Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, who at 28 is by far the most-followed YouTuber on the planet. With more than 494 million subscribers, his account showcases people — whether his crew or outside contestants — confronting extreme conditions. One recent upload features Donaldson and his team spending a week in the Arctic. An ongoing challenge chronicles four people living for months inside a Greenville grocery store in order to win $1 million.
Donaldson graduated from Greenville Christian Academy and has headquartered his company Beast Industries in his hometown, 80 miles east of Raleigh. His videos, brightly lit and meticulously edited, particularly appeal to younger viewers in their teens and early 20s.
NC’s film incentive divide
Amazon’s “Beast Games” has given Donaldson his biggest budget. The first season filmed in Nevada, but at least 80% of Season 2 was set in the Tar Heel State, specifically around Wilmington and Greenville. The third season’s North Carolina scenes have been “in and around the Greenville area,” N.C. Department of Commerce spokesperson Patrice Gist said in an email to The N&O.
As with other North Carolina economic incentives, some debate the value of taxpayer-funded film rebates.
N.C. Film Office Director Guy Gaster believes the lack of a grant is what caused “Beast Games” Season 1 to film outside of North Carolina.
“There are certainly people who have asked, ‘Why are you giving this production an incentive? They were going to be in North Carolina regardless,’” Gaster told The N&O in December. “And they have proven that, no, they would not necessarily shoot this in the state.”
North Carolina began awarding TV and movie productions tax credits in 2006, with the current grant program starting nine years later. Most states offer some form of entertainment industry incentive.
In a 2024 policy report, Jon Sanders of the Raleigh-based conservative think tank John Locke Foundation called for the end of the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant fund, writing “unlike other economic incentive programs, film grants don’t require recipients to earn them over time by hitting specific local job–creation targets or fulfilling other long-term promises.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:25 AM.
