Is Los Angeles Losing Its Allure?

One of the first rules of financial PR is if you are given a shit sandwich, write about how wonderful the condiments are.

The meager third quarter “Shoot Days” calculation (July through September) 2025, presented FilmLA with such a sandwich.

Bring on the condiments.

FilmLA vice president Philip Sokoloski said of the recent results, “We all know that it will take a little while for new incentive-backed projects to get underway and be reflected in our data, so we were not surprised to see on-location production continue to slip this summer despite the state’s increased investment.”

His weak pickle was in response to a 13.2% drop in the amount of permitted production filming in the greater LA area to only 4,380. That’s a year on year drop from Q3 2024 which was already 5% down from the year before. FilmLA described 5,048 SDs last year as “lackluster.”

In fact, the “official film office of the City and County of Los Angeles” went on to say it was surprised at the Industry’s “failure to meet or exceed numbers shared at this time a year ago.”

Why surprised?

Because, as per FilmLA: “In 2023, a double industry strike had for the most part paused most scripted production.”

So in 2023 a double industry strike had paused most production, but production decreased a little in 2024 and then a lot by Q3 2025.

Maybe the incentives Sokoloski was referring to will kick in. Assembly Bill 132, which provides funding for the film industry working in California at $750 million per year for the next five years, and supplemental legislation in the form of expanded tax credit rates (from 35 to 40%) were only signed in midsummer. Maybe they will have an effect.

However, there are a couple of things to note, which goes back to the sandwich:

California already had a film-encouragement program in place, although it had an annual cap of $330 million. That’s certainly more than the $120 million in New Mexico. But the new $750 million offering doesn’t even match the $800 million that New York put on the table. To take advantage of the New York savings — and to “apologize” after the Skydance acquisition moved Paramount HQ from Times Square to the Melrose lot — Paramount recently announced that it will be spending $100 million to produce in New York. That $100 million isn’t coming out of thin air, it’s coming out of LA.

Hollywood isn’t the only locale that is down on Shooting Days. Georgia — which was where films and TV shows ranging from Bad Boys: Ride or Die to Will Trent were produced — was a hot shooting destination starting in 2008 with the passage of the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act. (The scenery may be nice in Georgia, but the money matters.)

But then things turned, well, shitty. The Wall Street Journal noted that in fiscal 2022 there were 412 productions in Georgia but only 245 in the fiscal year ending June 2025. For example, Marvel Studios (operating in Trilith Studios in Fayette County) decided it would rather shoot its blockbusters in the U.K. than the U.S. (Somewhat sad for Georgia that the last two Marvel movies shot in the state were Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts+, as these were the two lowest-grossing Marvel Universe movies released in the past five years; only The Marvels did worse at the box office, and it wasn’t made at Trilith.

Yes, other countries — including the U.K., Germany, and Hungary — are pushing pounds, euros and forints on the table for studios to make their films in their locales.

And then then there’s the MovieMaker Magazine annual list of the “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker.” Its 2025 top 10 includes:

1. Albuquerque, New Mexico
2. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
3. Atlanta, Georgia
4. Chicago, Illinois
5. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
6. New Orleans, Louisiana
7. Miami, Florida
8. Austin, Texas
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10. Cincinnati, Ohio

You may notice what city isn’t on the list.

Which brings us back to LA.

It has 477 sound stages and some 8-million square feet of stage production space, larger than any other city in the US or elsewhere.

However, in April FilmLA delivered a study, “Sound Stage Production Report,” which certainly has to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many of those stage owners.

The aggregate of all projects — “Feature Films, One-Hour Series, Half-Hour Series, Virtual Productions, Commercials, Pilot, Internet/Digital, Still Photo, Talk Show, Game/Audience Show, Music Video, Other” — numbered 1,700 in 2019 by 2023, the latest calculated, that number was down to 1,225.

In 2019 studio occupancy was 93%. In 2023 it was 69%. So, lots of those stages are collecting dust.

Film Town USA is falling slowly into disuse and it’s not clear whether there’s any way of bringing back the traffic. The increased incentives will help entice a few more customers, but probably not revive the entire cuisine. The legislation promises less a gleaming new deli counter bustling with diners and more a glob of piquant mustard on a shit sandwich.

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