L.A. Location Shoots Continue to Struggle as Productions Look Forward to Expanded Tax Credit
Production in the Los Angeles area continued to limp along in the second quarter of 2025, with a 6.2% decline in total location shoot days compared to the same quarter in 2024, according to FilmLA‘s latest report.
Shoot days increased slightly compared to the first three months of 2025, though it continues to be 32% below the five-year average.
Those numbers come as California legislators voted to approve a major expansion of the state’s tax credit for film and TV production from $330 million a year to $750 million. That increase is set to take effect this month, as the California Film Commission has opened a new round of credit applications.
As part of the legislation, the available credit amount for an individual project from 20% to 35%. AB1138 (Zbur/Bryan) also raised the per-production incentive cap from $100 million to $120 million and tripled total program funding for independent films from $26 million to $75 million. Film tax credits are also now refundable in California, beginning with the 2025-26 fiscal year.
FilmLA President Paul Audley said, “FilmLA is elated with the news of the passage of the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program by the California State Legislature. We are grateful to our partners and collaborators across the industry and in government who joined together to advocate for a stronger, modernized, and revitalized California where production can thrive once again.”
Production in all categories was at least 30% below the five-year average, with commercials especially struggling.
Feature film producers generated 553 shoot days in the second quarter, 21.4% fewer than in Q2 2024. All of the feature films shot locally last quarter were independent productions. Those titles included “Animals,” “I’ll Take the Hamm,” “Totally Ghosted,” “Unravel” and “Whalefall.”
The California Film Commission recently announced the approval of a new feature production round of 48 projects, which includes five major studio films, six independently produced projects with budgets in excess of $10 million, and another 37 with budgets less than $10 million.
Television saw a 17% increase compared to last year, and logged 2,224 shoot days in Q2. The increase came from to gains for TV dramas (up 9.5%) and reality TV (up 29.5%).
TV dramas shot a total of 782 shoot days, their highest observed levels since pre-strike period in Q4 2022 (with 1,155 shoot days).
Among the shows were “High Potential” (ABC), “9-1-1” (Fox), and untitled “Snowfall” spinoff (FX), “Lincoln Lawyer”(Netflix), “Paradise”(Hulu), “Shrinking” (Apple TV+), and “The Burbs” (Peacock).
Reality TV production was at 1,124 shoot days last quarter, their strongest level since Q1 2024 (with 1,317 shoot days). “American Idol” (ABC), “Let’s Make a Deal” (CBS), “90 Day Fiancé” (TLC), “House of Villains” (E!), “Vanderpump Rules” (Bravo!) and “Everybody’s Live in LA” (Netflix) are among the reality TV shows shooting in the L.A. area.
Commercial production declined by 15.3% last quarter to 692 shoot days. The commercials category was down 38.3% below its five-year quarterly average – making it the weakest of the three major production categories tracked by FilmLA.
Adidas, Amazon, Geico, McDonald’s, Iron Mountain and Walmart helped by filming their commercials locally.
FilmLA’s “Other” Category, which collectively includes still photo shoots, student films, documentaries, short films, online content, plus music and industrial videos, declined 17.3% compared to the same period and year and was down 29.8% over the category’s five-year average.
“While there is work ahead to bring Los Angeles-area production back to its full potential, we are optimistic and grounded in our mission to keep production affordable, accessible and straightforward,” said Audley. “We look forward to our continuing conversations with government officials and our partners in the industry to see the full fruition of the economic, cultural, and employment benefits that Los Angeles’s film ecosystem offers to our community. We remain dedicated to working with our union partners, independent and major studios, and community organizations until there’s no better place to film in the world than right here in Los Angeles.”
Gene Maddaus contributed to this story.
Shoot days increased slightly compared to the first three months of 2025, though it continues to be 32% below the five-year average.
Those numbers come as California legislators voted to approve a major expansion of the state’s tax credit for film and TV production from $330 million a year to $750 million. That increase is set to take effect this month, as the California Film Commission has opened a new round of credit applications.
As part of the legislation, the available credit amount for an individual project from 20% to 35%. AB1138 (Zbur/Bryan) also raised the per-production incentive cap from $100 million to $120 million and tripled total program funding for independent films from $26 million to $75 million. Film tax credits are also now refundable in California, beginning with the 2025-26 fiscal year.
FilmLA President Paul Audley said, “FilmLA is elated with the news of the passage of the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program by the California State Legislature. We are grateful to our partners and collaborators across the industry and in government who joined together to advocate for a stronger, modernized, and revitalized California where production can thrive once again.”
Production in all categories was at least 30% below the five-year average, with commercials especially struggling.
Feature film producers generated 553 shoot days in the second quarter, 21.4% fewer than in Q2 2024. All of the feature films shot locally last quarter were independent productions. Those titles included “Animals,” “I’ll Take the Hamm,” “Totally Ghosted,” “Unravel” and “Whalefall.”
The California Film Commission recently announced the approval of a new feature production round of 48 projects, which includes five major studio films, six independently produced projects with budgets in excess of $10 million, and another 37 with budgets less than $10 million.
Television saw a 17% increase compared to last year, and logged 2,224 shoot days in Q2. The increase came from to gains for TV dramas (up 9.5%) and reality TV (up 29.5%).
TV dramas shot a total of 782 shoot days, their highest observed levels since pre-strike period in Q4 2022 (with 1,155 shoot days).
Among the shows were “High Potential” (ABC), “9-1-1” (Fox), and untitled “Snowfall” spinoff (FX), “Lincoln Lawyer”(Netflix), “Paradise”(Hulu), “Shrinking” (Apple TV+), and “The Burbs” (Peacock).
Reality TV production was at 1,124 shoot days last quarter, their strongest level since Q1 2024 (with 1,317 shoot days). “American Idol” (ABC), “Let’s Make a Deal” (CBS), “90 Day Fiancé” (TLC), “House of Villains” (E!), “Vanderpump Rules” (Bravo!) and “Everybody’s Live in LA” (Netflix) are among the reality TV shows shooting in the L.A. area.
Commercial production declined by 15.3% last quarter to 692 shoot days. The commercials category was down 38.3% below its five-year quarterly average – making it the weakest of the three major production categories tracked by FilmLA.
Adidas, Amazon, Geico, McDonald’s, Iron Mountain and Walmart helped by filming their commercials locally.
FilmLA’s “Other” Category, which collectively includes still photo shoots, student films, documentaries, short films, online content, plus music and industrial videos, declined 17.3% compared to the same period and year and was down 29.8% over the category’s five-year average.
“While there is work ahead to bring Los Angeles-area production back to its full potential, we are optimistic and grounded in our mission to keep production affordable, accessible and straightforward,” said Audley. “We look forward to our continuing conversations with government officials and our partners in the industry to see the full fruition of the economic, cultural, and employment benefits that Los Angeles’s film ecosystem offers to our community. We remain dedicated to working with our union partners, independent and major studios, and community organizations until there’s no better place to film in the world than right here in Los Angeles.”
Gene Maddaus contributed to this story.