WILMINGTON — Thousands of fans pilgrimaged to Wilmington almost two weeks ago to celebrate a show that wrapped filming in the city more than a decade ago. Some local businesses felt the boost.
Between Sept. 18 through Sept. 20, “One Tree Hill” fans were treated to a basketball game, concert, fashion show and meet-and-greets with actors from the show. More than 20 of the show’s cast members, including four of the main five — Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray, Bethany Joe Lenz, and James Lafferty — attended.
The “Hey 23” event — referring to Lafferty’s jersey number he wore as Nathan Scott — was hosted by Friends with Benefit Events. Event manager Jen Cross said the weekend brought in around 4,800 fans, many of them from outside Wilmington, making this year’s event the biggest yet in its 10-year history.
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An event of this caliber shows another impact Wilmington’s film industry has on the city. Aside from productions that bring jobs and direct spending to local businesses while filming, and fueling the economy while rolling cameras, there is a multiplier effect.
“It brings just so much tourism — ‘One Tree Hill’ itself brings tourism all year long,” Cross said, pointing out Friends with Benefit’s sister company also conducts tours of the warehouse building at 1121 S. Front St. used as TRIC Nightclub in the show.
Cross said her team has yet to finalize how much profit was made from this year’s events. Tickets were individually priced and ranging from $50 to $300; as in past years, proceeds will go to St. Jude’s.
The company rented out the Wilmington Convention Center and UNCW to host many gatherings. The city could not share how much the Friends with Benefit group paid for 60,000 square feet of convention center space, though UNCW said it was $22,898 to secure Trask Coliseum and Hanover Hall.
The company also partnered with several local businesses, either former filming locations like downtown’s Hell’s Kitchen or those who set up shop as one of the show’s fictional locations. For example, the Front Street coffee shop Maroon Monkey became Karen’s Cafe, the real filming location being the Outdoor Equipped store at 272 N. Front St.
These “hotspots” were part of Friends with Benefit’s advertising across social media and physical flyers; they were also given Friends with Benefit merch to sell.
Every business Port City Daily spoke to said the “One Tree Hill” weekend drove increased traffic to their business; some owners even reported moving to Wilmington after seeing the town depicted in “One Tree Hill.”
Nicolette Hanley, the owner of Dixie Grill, told Port City Daily the grill broke its one-day sales record on Saturday, Sept. 19 and the weekly sales record because of the influx of “One Tree Hill” visitors.
Hanley said she sees tourists every weekend trickle into the restaurant, which served as a filming location and still contains the booth cast members sat in. During the convention weekend, the grill held a “One Tree Hill” trivia event after-hours that Hanley said packed the house, which had never happened.
“I will take One Tree Hill weekend over any other festival,” Hanley said.
“One Tree Hill” began filming in 2003 as the WB network’s follow-up to another Wilmington teen drama, “Dawson’s Creek.” “OTH” followed two clashing half brothers and their friends navigating high school and beyond, and became the longest-running series in North Carolina history. It also generated $135 million for the state’s economy by 2009, two years before it would wrap filming.
“It’s been 23 years since the show started, and just the fact that they still have such a following of fans, and we have new fans because of streaming — a lot of new people that are just now watching the show because of that,” Cross said.
The “One Tree Hill” event comes amid uncertainty over the state’s ability to bring in new productions in the near future.
Since 2019, the North Carolina General Assembly has obligated $31 million in funding to the incentive every fiscal year. However, the Department of Commerce, believing the General Assembly would provide more funding if it overobligated, has committed the annual allocation this fiscal year and next two. Thus, there is currently no money available for new productions until 2029.
Hanley has seen first-hand how disruptions to the film incentive can affect people’s careers. She moved to Wilmington in 2014 and graduated from UNCW with a degree in film studies.
“That was the year [the grant] was taken away,” Hanley said, referring to the former uncapped rebate, different from the current $31-million grant. “Which is probably why I ended up owning Dixie Grill.”
As reported by Port City Daily, state leaders are discussing ways to open the program grants again. Gov. Josh Stein visited Wilmington on Sept. 15 to announce his goal to find a solution with the leaders of the state legislature and tout the industry’s success. In 2025, the film brought $185 million in direct economic benefit to the state.
However, this number doesn’t account for tourism driven by productions and films that wrapped in the greater Wilmington area and across North Carolina.
Another “OTH” filming location, Hell’s Kitchen, offered a themed menu during the convention weekend. Owner, Shannon Rogers set it up months in advance and told Port City Daily the menu brought in $1,000 more than average on both Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant welcomed triple the amount of diners, though she noted not everyone said they were with “One Tree Hill” and some of the influx could be attributed to multiple Widespread Panic concerts taking place the same weekend.
Though Rogers said this year’s convention was the largest turnout, Hell’s Kitchen has worked with Friends with Benefit Events in the past and sees film fanatics come through Hell’s Kitchen doors consistently. The restaurant itself was born from “Dawson’s Creek” — it was formed with set pieces from the show’s fictional restaurant of the same name and retains much of the same layout today.
“We get people from all over from ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Dawson’s Creek.’ From ‘One Tree Hill,’ I saw people from Canada, from Europe,” she said, even from her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. “It’s so much fun and it brings us so much business, so we really appreciate it.”
Social Coffee was a first-time participant with Friends with Benefit and transformed the shop into the fictional Tree Hill Cafe with a menu rebranded to reflect the show. Operations manager Alyx Ardoin said the coffee shop’s owner is a huge fan of “One Tree Hill,” which inspired her move to Wilmington.
Ardoin said the coffee shop experienced a 20% bump in sales over typical weekends, due to traffic from UNCW’s “OTH” events. The shop’s sold-out trivia night the Thursday before the weekend also was a hit.
“It was mostly people from out of town … so they had never heard of Social before,” Ardoin said.
Even businesses who were not officially a part of the event benefitted from spillover from the “One Tree Hill’ weekend. Gwenyfar Rohler — owner of Old Books on Front, located across from the Karen’s Cafe filming location — told Port City Daily she saw a “tremendous” amount of foot traffic.
“I would say 80% of the people who actually spent money Friday, Saturday, Sunday were here for ‘One Tree Hill,’” Rohler said.
Rohler said the bookstore supplied “Julius Caesar” to the production when it was filming; in the show, Lucas Scott’s character receives the special edition from his mother as a graduation present.
While Rohler said sales from the weekend weren’t necessarily going to pay the mortgage, she would prefer the “One Tree Hill” traffic over the American Craft Walk or Azalea Festival events.
The Black Cat Shoppe, used as a record store in the show, also reported double foot traffic from “One Tree Hill” fans. The shop’s owners also operate the Wilmywood Movie and TV Location Walk, which manager Miles Hirchak said always includes “One Tree Hill” fans.
“I don’t think the average resident understands the impact of OTH on our community,” Hirchak said, pointing out fans spend money on hotels, restaurants, attractions, souvenirs and memorabilia across the city. “Whatever tax incentives were paid to OTH have been returned a hundred fold over the decades.”
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