Happyness in San Francisco

Columbia Pictures

The Pursuit of Happyness - 2006 Will Smith (left) and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith

SONY is loving Will Smith's, "Pursuit of Happyness," bringing in $32.3 million so far. And they're not the only ones -- San Fran is ecstatic the production spent about $22 million and created about 400 jobs while shooting in San Fran. That means about $1 million in fees for the city.

Still, even with that help, the San Fran film biz only brought in $150 million last year, down dramatically from $461 million spent in 1996, when just about everyone was filming in the bay area: Nick Cage and Sean Connery in "The Rock," Whoopi Goldberg's "Sister Act" films...

San Fran certainly provides a dramatic backdrop, but California doesn't offer the crazy tax incentives that other states do -- making it a touchy financial choice to set a film there.

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