Film and TV shoots have fled for cheaper locales, enticed by generous tax incentives offered by rival states and countries. Those threats have existed for a long time, but have lately tipped over into what some California public officials now recognize as legitimate crisis territory.
According to data from nonprofit agency FilmLA, 2024 was the second slowest year for production on record in the Los Angeles area, only besting 2020, the year of the coronavirus shutdowns. Reality TV’s exodus was especially striking.
A recent survey of executives by production tracking firm ProdPro ranked the most desired places to shoot. California ranked sixth (bested by Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia).
The devastation from the wildfires, which destroyed the homes of many in the industry both above and below the line, might be the last straw for some workers considering taking their talents elsewhere. The fires, in fact, underlined the lack of activity in L.A. It was relatively easy to find TV productions that were at least briefly shut down by the disaster, such as “NCIS,” “Hacks” and “Abbott Elementary.” Film, much less so.
The struggles aren’t solely due to high costs of doing work in Los Angeles. Globally, the number of film and TV productions starting principal photography in 2024 still lagged 11% behind the pre-strike year of 2022, suggesting that an overall retrenchment is largely to blame for the sluggish recovery. But it’s clear that when production is coming back, it’s mostly doing so elsewhere.
And the mood is not great going into 2025. Executives polled by ProdPro said they expect production volume to increase this year, but the vast majority said budgets would be the same (42%) or slightly lower (39%). They’re looking at several potential methods of cutting costs: Yes, tax breaks was No. 1 on the list, but other popular options on the table include shorter schedules, digital workflows and fewer episodes.
Analysts and writers such as NYU’s Scott Galloway have compared Los Angeles’ plight to the hollowing out of the U.S. auto industry in Detroit. If you look at crew members’ social media accounts, those parallels don’t seem quite so hyperbolic. There are surely similarities to sectors such as domestic manufacturing and agriculture, which were also pounded by global competition, technological disruption and automation.
Some are taking action. Gov. Gavin Newsom last year proposed more than doubling California’s tax credit for film production to $750 million. That would probably help matters, but only to a point. California’s tax incentive program currently does not help cover costs for above-the-line talent, which limits the amount that studios and streamers can save on individual productions.
Crew members are doing what they can to campaign for help. In the wake of the Eaton, Hughes and Palisades fires, crew workers launched a petition calling for uncapping the tax incentive for productions that shoot in L.A. County for the next three years as part of the overall disaster relief effort. The online petition also asks that studios and streamers commit to “at least 10% more production in L.A.” over that period of time. But companies are going to follow incentives.
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