Los Angeles On-Location Production Down 16.1% In 2025, But California’s Revamped Tax Incentive Helps Fuel Small Growth In Q4 — Report

On-location production in Los Angeles saw a slight uptick in the final few months of 2025 but overall the year marked another bleak one for the city, with 16.1% fewer total shoot days than 2024, according to the latest report from FilmLA . The city and county’s film-permitting office said Thursday that shoot days in the greater L.A. area totaled 4,625 from October to December, up 5.6% from Q3’s 4,380. That’s a bit of good news, after shoot days plummeted 18.2% between Q2 and Q3, which FilmLA posits could be a sign that the tides are changing after the California Film & TV Tax Credit Program gave the state’s industry a much-needed infusion. “While the year-end numbers are disappointing, they are not unexpected,” FilmLA VP of Integrated Communications Philip Sokoloski said in a statement, adding that the organization’s stance has “consistently projected that the full effect of the expanded Film and Television Tax Credit Program would take time to materialize.” Watch on Deadline That is evidenced by the fact that, year-over-year, total shoot days in Q4 2025 were down 21.1% versus the same time a year ago. In total, FilmLA reports 19,694 shoot days in the greater L.A. area throughout 2025. Compare that to the 23,480 recorded across 2024 and it’s clear that the region’s physical production problems are far from over. Commercial productions took the largest year-over-year hit, down 23.2% from Q4 2024 with only about 586 shoot days. Those that did shoot in the area were, if it’s any consolation, some pretty large companies including Chevrolet, Nissan, and Toyota, Anthem, Bank of America, FedEx, Microsoft and Ring, per FilmLA. Commercials are currently ineligible for the state’s production incentive, so continued declines here are to be at least somewhat expected. Television also backslid 21.9% compared with same period the year prior, ending the year 50.1% below the five-year category average. In Q4 2025, there were 1,247 total shoot days for television, a majority of which came from reality TV, which declined a modest 9.8% year-over-year. TV dramas were hit particularly hard with just 336 shoot days, a 36.4% year-over-year decline. However, this is where FilmLA is pointing out the boon the revamped tax credit program seems to be for what remains of the production industry in Los Angeles. According to the org, 31% of those 336 shoot days were from incentivized projects including ABC’s The Rookie. TV comedies fared much better, likely because the costs are typically already lower on these productions, declining just 6% in Q4 of 2025 versus the same period in 2024. However, the category is down 66% against five-year averages. Once again, 32% of these shoot days were on incentivized productions, including Netflix’s Running Point and HBO’s Hacks . Comedies in particular seem to have benefitted from the reshaped tax incentive program’s expanded eligibility for non-relocating television series and episodes with shorter runtimes. Feature film shoot days declined the least, but still a lot, down 19.7% year-over-year in the fourth quarter to 473. More than...

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