When C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia he made one of the rules of his magical land pretty clear - you could never travel to Narnia the same way twice. The path to Narnia changes. Now the movies are following that with a change in filming venue.
Both of the previous chapters of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, were shot on location in New Zealand. Now production on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which takes place largely on a ship, will move to Rosarito, Mexico to take advantage of large soundstages and a water tank at Baja Studios - the same tank used in Titanic and Master and Commander according to Variety.
Filming locations are often selected by budgetary costs. New Zealand offered tax incentives that led to the first two films basing themselves there, and utilizing local special effects houses Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. However, with so much of the third movie taking place on board the Dawn Treader, a site move was needed. Moving the whole production to Mexico allows the studio to cut costs instead of moving cast and crew back and forth between countries. An on location shot in Australia is still planned, however.
As you might expect, studio executives are denying the move has anything to do with Caspian’s less impressive box office take. New Zealand’s film industry will take a hit by losing the film, having garnered almost $200 million between the previous two films.
