The numbers inform a sobering story. On-location movie and tv manufacturing in Larger Los Angeles dropped 6.2 % within the second quarter of 2025, marking one other chapter in what has turn out to be a persistent narrative of manufacturing decline within the leisure capital of the world. However for the primary time in months, there’s real cause for optimism regardless of the extreme LA movie manufacturing drop.
FilmLA’s newest quarterly report, launched yesterday, reveals the advanced actuality dealing with California’s signature trade. Whereas general shoot days fell to five,394 in Q2 2025 in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, the long-awaited modernization of the California Movie & Tv Tax Credit score Program has lastly turn out to be actuality – and it’s extra substantial than many trade observers anticipated. We already reported concerning the Q2 numbers from final 12 months precisely a 12 months in the past, and so they didn’t look nice both.
The size of the problem
The manufacturing decline isn’t hitting all sectors equally. Function movie manufacturing took the toughest blow, producing simply 553 shoot days in Q2—a devastating 21.4 % drop from the earlier 12 months. What’s notably hanging is that every one characteristic movies shot regionally throughout this era had been impartial productions, together with titles like Animals, I’ll Take the Hamm, and Whalefall. The absence of main studio options speaks to the elemental economics driving manufacturing elsewhere.
The quantity of shoot days in LA has considerably declined during the last 5 years, however current incentives slowed the decline. Screenshot from FilmLA’s newest quarterly report.
Business manufacturing fared even worse on a relative foundation, declining 15.3 % to 692 shoot days. With none type of enterprise incentive to maintain manufacturing native, this class has turn out to be a bellwether for California’s competitiveness – and the information isn’t encouraging. Business manufacturing now sits 38.3 % beneath its five-year common, making it the weakest of FilmLA’s main tracked classes.
Tv: a vivid spot in darkish instances
Tv manufacturing supplied the quarter’s solely vital vivid spot, with 2,224 shoot days representing a 17.0 % year-over-year improve. This surge introduced extra tv manufacturing to LA-area communities than FilmLA has recorded since early 2024, pushed primarily by features in TV dramas and actuality programming.
TV dramas posted 782 shoot days – their highest ranges for the reason that pre-strike interval of This autumn 2022. Productions included established collection like Excessive Potential Season 2 for ABC, 9-1-1 Season 8 for Fox, and The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 for Netflix, alongside new tasks like FX’s Untitled Snowfall Spinoff and Peacock’s The Burbs.
Actuality tv reached 1,124 shoot days, its strongest exhibiting since Q1 2024. The roster included veteran productions like American Idol, 90 Day Fiancé, and Vanderpump Guidelines, demonstrating the format’s continued attraction to networks searching for cost-effective content material with confirmed viewers engagement.
The tax credit score transformation
The passage of AB1138 represents essentially the most vital enlargement of California’s movie incentives in years. The laws – which we reported about not too long ago – will increase particular person mission credit from 20 to 35 % whereas elevating the per-production cap from $100 million to $120 million. Maybe most significantly for impartial filmmakers, whole program funding for indie movies tripled from $26 million to $75 million.
The California Movie Fee not too long ago accepted 48 new characteristic tasks beneath the expanded program, together with 5 main studio movies and 6 independently produced tasks with budgets exceeding $10 million. This represents a significant shift from the present panorama the place solely impartial options had been capturing regionally.
FilmLA President Paul Audley’s enthusiasm is palpable: “FilmLA is elated with the information of the passage of the California Movie & Tv Tax Credit score Program by the California State Legislature.” However his feedback additionally acknowledge the uphill battle forward, noting there’s “work forward to deliver Los Angeles-area manufacturing again to its full potential.”
Function movies and commercials shoot days in LA confirmed vital decline year-over-year. Screenshot from FilmLA’s newest quarterly report.
The broader context
The manufacturing challenges prolong past easy economics. FilmLA’s “Different” class, encompassing all the pieces from scholar movies to music movies, declined 17.3 % in comparison with the earlier 12 months and sits 29.8 % beneath its five-year common. This broad-based weak spot suggests systemic points past the most important studio and community productions that seize most trade consideration.
The report notes that solely 177 shoot days throughout all classes in Q2 had been incentivized via present tax credit score packages—roughly 3.3 % of whole manufacturing. This low utilization charge underscores each the earlier program’s limitations and the potential influence of the expanded credit.
Wanting ahead
The timing of the tax credit score enlargement couldn’t be extra vital. After FilmLA publicly known as for a “huge enlargement” of this system final October, becoming a member of different organizations in sounding alarms over unprecedented manufacturing losses, the legislative response has been swift and substantial. The brand new credit turn out to be refundable starting with the 2025-26 fiscal 12 months, offering rapid money movement advantages for qualifying productions.
California’s inventive neighborhood has cause for cautious optimism, however the basic aggressive pressures stay unchanged. Different states and international locations proceed to supply aggressive incentives, and the worldwide manufacturing panorama has completely shifted in the course of the previous a number of years of trade upheaval.
The true check will come within the coming quarters because the expanded tax credit take impact and newly accepted tasks start manufacturing. For an trade that has watched an excessive amount of work migrate elsewhere, the stakes couldn’t be greater. California’s inventive class could be celebrating in the present day, however tomorrow’s manufacturing schedules will decide whether or not this legislative victory interprets into the sustained restoration the trade desperately wants.
If you wish to dive into the numbers by your self, remember to take a look at your complete Q2 2025 report by FilmLA right here.
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