Businesses and residents have issues with uptick in movie sets in Paterson

Tuesday, October 7, 2025
PATERSON, New Jersey (WABC) -- Movie production companies and big stars have been a common occurrence in neighborhoods throughout New Jersey.

Usually, production comes at a cost and that means a lot of money for the municipalities involved.

A production in Paterson is testing the patience of all who live and work nearby.

At a Dominican restaurant on one of the streets closed off for a Netflix movie shoot, and at a restaurant one block over complained that there was no business all day and that food had to be thrown out.

"So we lost money last week and today because of this movie, it's no good for business," restaurant manager Karena Smith said.



Jimmy owns the nail salon a block away who said "No customers coming, I got nobody."

Streets around city hall in Paterson were shut down from dawn to dusk on Monday and on September 30 to shoot the movie 'Bad Day' starring Cameron Diaz.

Esther Sinclair posted on Facebook that she loved seeing a movie shot in Paterson.

But City Councilman Luis Velez says the city needs to charge more than a few thousand dollars to make it worth everyone's inconvenience.

"This little spot here it like is like Tribeca, like small streets," Velez said.



During the latest 2-day shoot people didn't stay in hotels or buy local food.

Councilman Velez said food and meals were brought in by the movie crew.

"Why are we getting peanuts? And that's the problem. People were complaining 'I'm losing business, I'm getting nothing back in return," Velez said.

So the local restaurants, he says, had no chance to do any business.

"We got schools opening late. All the students are late to school. Parents couldn't drop them off safely," Velez said.



But the Mayor of Paterson says movie shoots are a great idea and that they're only just getting started.

"Paterson has been dubbed Hollywood East because we've been able to attract so many movies in the last seven years. Spielberg was here in 2019. He was here for three months and there was a multiplier effect as far as economic impact, it was very positive," André Sayegh said.

He says they'll do better in the future with local businesses getting compensated for lost business or at least getting a part of the pie because a huge star is expected in January.

"Only because it's you, we're anticipating Denzel Washington," Sayegh said.


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