Many people dream of a career in the world of film. Whether it’s working as an actor in front of the camera, a writer creating stories that will reach a wide range of audiences, a director who looks to bring their vision to life, or work in any other departments such as hair, makeup, costumes, or set design, working on set for a production is an experience unlike any other.
Numerous people believe that this dream will come to life in the city where the film industry rose to prominence–Los Angeles, California.
Unfortunately, with productions moving to other American cities such as New York, Austin, and Atlanta, or moving to other countries, there has been a decrease in on-set production for the Los Angeles area.
2024 ended with a higher note, with production in the region increasing by 6.2%. However, “production shoot days in the Greater Los Angeles area declined by 22.4% from January through March 2025, according to FilmLA‘s latest report.”
Looking at the data, television production had, “ 1,670 shoot days, falling 30.5%, and feature film production dropped to 28.9% with 451 shoot days.”
An event that affected Southern California in the first quarter of 2025 that did not happen at the end of 2024 was the devastation of the Altadena and Pacific Palisades fires.
While some may assume that the L.A. fires contributed to the decline in film production, Variety reported that an analysis from FilmLA determined that the two areas only accounted for 1.3% of all regional filming.
Only 545 film locations were actually located within the burn zones, which are still off-limits per City and County orders.
With that being said, this data does not take back the devastating aftermath of the fires as a whole.
When speaking about the fires, Phillip Sokoloski, the Vice President of Integrated Communications at FilmLA said that, “Loss of filming opportunity in no way compares to the cost of the Eaton and Palisades Fires in terms of loss of life, resident displacement and property damage."
He continued to explain that, “the fires sent many productions scrambling to reschedule shoots and displaced hundreds of industry workers from their homes. But their impact on local filming levels appears to have been temporary.”
Other factors in the decline of production look to be due to, “global production cutbacks and California’s ongoing loss of work to rival territories.”
This isn’t the only challenge Hollywood has faced recently. Everything from the 2023 labor strikes to the COVID-19 pandemic and, “upheaval from the rise of streaming services,” have added to the decline as well.
The peak of television production in recent years was in 2021, which featured 18,560 annual shoot days in the Greater Los Angeles area.
This is a stark difference from 7,716 shoot days just 3 years later in 2024, a 58.4% decrease, showing the roller coaster ride film production has gone through this decade.
In 2025’s first quarter, TV drama production decreased by 38.9% and TV comedy production declined by 29.9%.
Shoots that aren’t as expensive, such as, “still photography, student films, documentaries, music and industrial videos and other projects, dropped 20.2% last quarter.”
Reality TV also saw a decline, going down 26.4%.
In 2023, reality TV saw an increase as a result of the entertainment industry strikes, but this changed in 2024, which was the, “second-slowest year for filming in Greater L.A.”
There are efforts being made to solve this downturn and help increase production in the region.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is looking to expand the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program.
This comes as there has been a push by labor unions, producers, and actors to increase tax incentives for the industry, as Reuters explained.
FilmLA looks to support this initiative, which is an “expansion of California’s film incentive to $750 million or more per year, including proposed changes to make the program more internationally competitive.”
Sokoloski of FilmLA shared the significance of doing whatever it takes to help LA’s film industry.
He explained that the, “California Production Coalition estimates that the average location shoot adds $670,000 and 1,500 jobs a day to a local economy.”
With that number in mind, people can see how every production creates jobs. As a result, more jobs can boost the industry.
He continued to explain that the, "County of Los Angeles and Beacon Economics report that there are 10,500 entertainment related businesses in the state… California can’t afford to surrender any more work to its competitors.”
Hopefully change will come to the Southern California area to help bolster the film industry and allow for more productions to be made in the area as opposed to opposing locations.