Los Angeles’ movie and television industry is still shedding work despite California pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into tax incentives meant to bring Hollywood home.
“We’ll keep cutting red tape and slashing permit fees at the local level, because this industry is core to the history, culture and economic power of Los Angeles,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement responding to the latest numbers.
Those numbers aren’t pretty. According to a new report from permitting office FilmLA, shoot days across the region fell nearly 13% from April through June compared to the same stretch last year, and dropped 8% from the previous quarter. Production in LA now trails its five-year average by roughly 36%, a gap that has become the industry’s most stubborn talking point.
The state isn’t sitting still on it, either. So far, 170 projects have landed tax credits under the newest version of California’s production incentive program, and titles receiving those subsidies now account for 33 percent of all feature shoot days in the region, FilmLA’s data shows. Bass says she’s “doubling down,” pushing for an uncapped credit and for competition reality shows to qualify for the money.
There’s a genuine bright spot buried in the gloom, and it’s scripted television. TV shoot days jumped an estimated 34% over the previous quarter, hitting 1,607 days, even though the category is still down almost 28% year-over-year — a decline driven mostly by reality programming, which doesn’t qualify for tax credits and keeps leaving town.
Related: Animated Movies Claim $71 Million of California Film Incentives
“Recent Emmy nominated productions such as HACKS, along with California Film and TV Tax Credit recipient THE PITT, have demonstrated the strong economic and creative contributions these types of shows can bring to the region,” FilmLA CEO Denise Gutches said in a statement.
Gutches added that scripted television “supports more industry jobs than any other production category,” which makes attracting it “an important step towards bringing filming back to the region, restoring jobs, and strengthening our local production economy.” It’s a small but telling detail for Movieguide® readers who’ve watched HACKS and THE PITT rack up critical praise this year: the shows carrying LA’s production economy on their backs happen to be the kind built on character and craft rather than manufactured drama.
Features had a rougher quarter, logging a nearly 20 percent year-over-year decline after actually outperforming the five-year average just three months earlier. Commercial production isn’t faring much better, down about 22% year-over-year, according to the same FilmLA figures.
Zoom out to the state level, though, and the picture brightens considerably. California brought in $1.33 billion in production spending statewide, a 5% increase year-over-year, while overall filming activity in the state grew 11%, according to a Q2 2026 report from industry tracker ProdPro. Production hasn’t vanished from California; it’s simply spreading out, and Los Angeles is fighting to keep its share of it.
For the thousands of grips, editors, camera operators and crew members whose paychecks depend on shoot days actually happening, this is more than an industry statistic. It’s the difference between steady work and scrambling, between a family budget that holds together and one that doesn’t. Every incentive fight at City Hall and in Sacramento is, at bottom, a fight over whether the people who make television and movies for a living can keep doing it here.
Whatever comes of the uncapped-credit push, Movieguide® will keep watching not just how much gets made in Hollywood, but what kind of stories rise to the top when it does.
Read Next: Goodbye Hollywood? Why Productions Are Leaving California—And How to Get Them Back
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