According to FilmLA’s third quarter report for 2020, film and television production in Los Angeles has plummeted. This fiscal downturn occurred in the first quarter of 2024. The organization pointed out that in every single category it was tracking there was a decrease, illustrating continuing difficulties embedded in California’s film industry. The sudden decline in output raises a lot of alarm bells. It endangers the state’s future competitiveness against enemy territory for film/TV projects.
The production report marks a significant decline of total production in the area known as Greater Los Angeles. After peaking in 2021, filming is down 58.4% from those highs, down to 18,560 shoot days (SD). By the first quarter of this year, production had fallen to a mere 7,716 SD. Television drama production experienced a shocking drop of 38.9%, with the count plummeting to just 440 SD.
Commercials were the ones that came closest to breakeven, seeing just a slight 2.1% drop. Yet, even with this marginal resilience, the trends overall tell an ominous picture for the industry.
Tax Credit Program’s Impact
In the first quarter, 77 days of television drama production were directly attributable to projects participating in the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program. That’s a huge 17.5% of all production hours! This program has been key in making Texas the home for these projects coming to the state. With the rapid growth of competition, we may now be reaching the point where its effectiveness is fading.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California is calling on state legislators to make it happen. His budget proposal includes raising funding for the tax credit program from $330 million to $750 million. This action increases California’s competitiveness to the filmmakers. It is a reaction to increasing pressures from competitors both domestically and abroad who are offering more lucrative and robust incentives.
“California can’t afford to surrender any more work to its competitors.” – Philip Sokoloski
Economic Considerations
According to the California Production Coalition, an average location shoot injects as much as $670,000 into the local economy. What’s more, it’s adding 1,500 jobs a day. As production goes down, these economic advantages go down with it. Industry experts are sounding the alarm. They argue that the rising costs of filming in America are driving filmmakers to leave California for USA’s default number one.
FilmLA noted, “Each drop reflected the impact of global production cutbacks and California’s ongoing loss of work to rival territories.” This points again to the larger problems plaguing not just California but the whole U.S. film industry. President Donald Trump’s politically inexplicable, fact-defying trade wars come on top of such complicating factors for U.S.-based production.
Environmental Challenges
Although recent wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena weren’t large enough to completely shut down filming, they posed an interesting set of challenges. That’s 545 distinct filming locations in the areas that burned that are no longer available to production. This compounds what is already an extremely tough climate for filmmakers even further.
FilmLA’s report is a dramatic reminder of the economic reality that Hollywood now grapples with. As production levels continue to decline, industry leaders and state officials must work together to find solutions that will keep California competitive and appealing to filmmakers.