Angela Peri was shepherding the more than 200 extras she had sent to the set of a new movie, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” being filmed in an upscale mall near Boston. So Ms. Peri, who runs a small casting agency, Boston Casting, hardly had a moment to talk about the impact of the new tax credits going to filmmakers in Massachusetts, the New York Times reports.

“It’s nuts,” she said. After nearly two decades of eking out a living with industrial films, commercials and the rare feature film, her business has doubled in the last year. “We’re working 12 to 15 hour days.”

Since last July, when Gov. Deval L. Patrick signed into law a 25 percent film tax credit, a wave of major film projects has landed in Massachusetts. The legislation was part of a fierce competition among a growing number of states to entice Hollywood to make films within their borders.

In April, both New York and Michigan raised the ante with generous rebate plans, with Michigan raising its tax credit to 42 percent. And in May, California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, urged legislators in his state to enhance its tax credit in hopes of keeping Hollywood in Hollywood. Nearly all 50 states have instituted film tax credits in recent years.

Still, the tax credits are not universally supported. A few Massachusetts legislators have recently criticized them, arguing that taxpayers are being fooled by the glamour and that much of the money generated by the films will end up leaving the state in the pockets of wealthy directors and movie stars.

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