Towards the end of 2022, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars declared that he’d be leaving Tinseltown. Switching from California to Nevada, Mark Wahlberg didn’t exactly go out quietly. En route to his new home, the actor of Boogie Nights, We Own the Night, and The Other Guys fame declared that Las Vegas would become Hollywood 2.0. Given the exodus of celebrities from California, his claim seemed to hold weight, but has Sin City become Hollywood 2.0 yet?
Wahlberg’s big gamble
When you have the earnings and profile of someone like Mark Wahlberg, it could be fair to say that nothing’s a gamble, provided that you don’t bet everything at once. For the actor, though, moving away from Hollywood so publically could have had repercussions. Luckily, he rationalized it by saying he’d only “made a couple of movies” during his time in the Golden State and wanted better opportunities for his family.
A slight precedent had already been set, with Mike Tyson, Nicolas Cage, and Celine Dion among the most notable Nevada residents making noise about the benefits of moving there. The increased levels of privacy by virtue of the smaller paparazzi circles and the tax benefits are all, naturally, very appealing to the rich and famous, but the move doesn’t come cheaply.
Wahlberg made his move to the resort community known as The Summit Club in Summerlin for a cool $14.5 million. For that price, he got a two-story home with four bathrooms and four bedrooms. However, at the same time, the actor was waiting on his $16.5 million investment to buy land and build on another part of The Summit Club. By moving here, Wahlberg set himself just 20 minutes away from the biggest draw of the state, Las Vegas.
Living it up Vegas-style
Wanting to spend more time working from home, Wahlberg has certainly made the commute to his latest filming locations quicker, and can even enjoy some of the main draws of the city from his home. Everyone knows that Las Vegas is America’s premier gambling city, but anyone with an internet connection can enjoy online table games with the shine of a Vegas casino.
New, hyper-immersive games like Lightning Roulette First Person, Dragon Tiger First Person, and Craps First Person offer the at-table experience from the comfort of your own home. While the star of 2014’s The Gambler isn’t far from Sin City, he never needed to be for the entertainment side of things. For filming, though, he seems to be making the most of his advantageous situation.
In February 2023, he filmed the movie The Family Plan at The STRAT in Las Vegas, and he even managed to get the world premiere at the Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea on The Strip. In the summer of 2023, Wahlberg started filming another flick, Flight Risk, in Mesquite and Las Vegas, and they even got permission from the union to continue shooting during the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Now, Wahlberg has moved on from his original The Summit Club home, selling it for $16.6 million to move into the home being developed on his 2.5 acres of land nearby. Mark isn’t the only Wahlberg finding success in Sin City, either. Wahlburgers, under head chef Paul Wahlberg, has two locations in Las Vegas now, including one inside the Mandalay Bay.
Las Vegas isn’t quite Hollywood 2.0 yet, but if Wahlberg continues to head up productions in Nevada and can establish a busy studio, it seems inevitable that other top moviemaking talents would follow suit.