Wilmington-based television series Under the Dome will receive a state grant of $5 million for its third season of filming, state commerce secretary John Skvarla announced in a news release Friday. That amount represents half of the state's total grant pool of $10 million for the fiscal year ending June 30.

The grant incentive replaced North Carolina’s former tax credit incentive program, which refunded 25 percent of film, television and commercial projects’ qualifying direct spending. The General Assembly allowed that incentive program to expire at the end of 2014.

Skvarla’s announcement also named the other two projects that will receive grants.

An untitled Lionsgate television project will also receive funding and is expected to shoot in Western North Carolina. The eligible grant amount is $4 million, according to the release.

The remaining $1 million in grant funds will go to film project Late in the Season. The production will use the “picturesque Davidson campus as its main location and will base in the greater Charlotte area,” the release stated.

The three productions altogether are expected to have direct in-state spending of more than $60 million across North Carolina this year, the release stated. That is significantly less than the roughly $244 million spent by a host of productions in the state during 2013 – the most recent year for which complete data are available – under the former tax credit incentive. The state paid out slightly more than $61 million in tax credits that year.

A mid-year report from the state’s film office, released July 25, 2014, showed an estimated production tally of $268 million in direct state spending for the first six months of 2014 and nearly 19,000 job opportunities for North Carolinians.

“The 2014 mid-year figures eclipse last year’s total direct in-state spending mark of more than $254 million by productions,” the report stated.

Since expiration of the tax credit program, film and television-related projects choosing North Carolina have fallen sharply, officials have said. As reported by the Greater Wilmington Business Journal in February, incentive advocates in Wilmington and across the state have refocused their efforts on persuading lawmakers to increase the amount of funds available for the grant program for the next fiscal year and beyond.

Meanwhile, Skvarla and others are sounding an upbeat note.

“The grant recipients reflect a good mix of productions that will film on our coast, in our mountains and in a major metropolitan area,” Skvarla said. “These productions will showcase our state’s amazing diversity of resources.”

These productions will continue to showcase North Carolina and its considerable film and television production resources, Guy Gaster, director of the N.C. Film Office, said in the release, adding, “Our first grant recipients will make their presence felt across the state and will give us a chance to leverage some partnerships to further promote North Carolina.”

The film office is based within the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

Summer season series Under the Dome, based on the novel by Stephen King, continues to use facilities at Wilmington's EUE/Screen Gems Studios and is shooting on location in Burgaw and Southport as well as Wilmington itself. Another Wilmington-based television series, Sleepy Hollow, was also renewed for a third season but moved production to Atlanta, allegedly lured there by Georgia's film incentives program.