LA Film Production Drops 6.2% in Q2 2025 Despite Expanded Tax Credits

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 change into a persistent narrative of manufacturing decline within the leisure capital of the world. However for the primary time in months, there’s real motive for optimism regardless of the extreme LA movie manufacturing drop. FilmLA’s newest quarterly report, launched yesterday, reveals the complicated actuality dealing with California’s signature business. Whereas total shoot days fell to five,394 in Q2 2025 in comparison with the identical interval final yr, the long-awaited modernization of the California Movie & Tv Tax Credit score Program has lastly change into actuality – and it’s extra substantial than many business observers anticipated. We already reported in regards to the Q2 numbers from final yr precisely a yr in the past, they usually didn’t look nice both. The dimensions of the challengeThe 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 yr. What’s notably putting is that each one function movies shot regionally throughout this era have been unbiased 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 latest 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 change into 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 brilliant spot in darkish timesTelevision manufacturing offered the quarter’s solely important brilliant 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 sequence like Excessive Potential Season 2 for ABC, 9-1-1 Season 8 for Fox, and The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 for Netflix, alongside new initiatives like FX’s Untitled Snowfall Spinoff and Peacock’s The Burbs.Actuality tv reached 1,124 shoot days, its strongest displaying 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 looking for cost-effective content material with confirmed viewers engagement.The tax credit score transformationThe passage of AB1138 represents probably the most important enlargement of California’s movie incentives in years. The laws – which we reported about just lately – will increase particular person challenge credit from 20 to 35 % whereas elevating the per-production cap from $100 million to $120 million. Maybe most significantly for unbiased filmmakers, whole program funding for indie movies tripled from $26 million to $75 million.The California Movie Fee just lately accepted 48 new function initiatives beneath the expanded program, together with 5 main studio movies and 6 independently produced initiatives with budgets exceeding $10 million. This represents a significant shift from the present panorama the place solely unbiased options have 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 carry Los Angeles-area manufacturing again to its full potential.”Function movies and commercials shoot days in LA confirmed important decline year-over-year. Screenshot from FilmLA’s newest quarterly report. The broader contextThe manufacturing challenges prolong past easy economics. FilmLA’s “Different” class, encompassing every thing from scholar movies to music movies, declined 17.3 % in comparison with the earlier yr and sits 29.8 % beneath its five-year common. This broad-based weak point suggests systemic points past the main studio and community productions that seize most business consideration.The report notes that solely 177 shoot days throughout all classes in Q2 have been incentivized via present tax credit score packages—roughly 3.3 % of whole manufacturing. This low utilization price underscores each the earlier program’s limitations and the potential impression of the expanded credit.Trying forwardThe timing of the tax credit score enlargement couldn’t be extra essential. After FilmLA publicly referred to 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 change into refundable starting with the 2025-26 fiscal yr, offering instant money stream advantages for qualifying productions.California’s inventive neighborhood has motive for cautious optimism, however the elementary aggressive pressures stay unchanged. Different states and nations proceed to supply aggressive incentives, and the worldwide manufacturing panorama has completely shifted through the previous a number of years of business upheaval.The true take a look at will come within the coming quarters because the expanded tax credit take impact and newly accepted initiatives start manufacturing. For an business that has watched an excessive amount of work migrate elsewhere, the stakes couldn’t be larger. California’s inventive class may be celebrating at this time, however tomorrow’s manufacturing schedules will decide whether or not this legislative victory interprets into the sustained restoration the business desperately wants.If you wish to dive into the numbers by your self, you should definitely try your complete Q2 2025 report by FilmLA right here. Are you based mostly in California and dealing within the movie business there? Are you impacted by the LA movie manufacturing drop? Please inform us about your observations within the feedback beneath!