It was another tough year for film and television production in Los Angeles as the total shoot days for 2025 dropped 16.1% compared to the previous year, according to a new report.
Last year’s 19,694 shoot days was the lowest total since 2020, according to the nonprofit FilmLA, which tracks filming in the greater L.A. area. In 2024, that total was 23,480 shoot days.
The drop in filming comes as L.A. continues to battle runaway production to other states and countries, as well as the continued effects on the industry of the pandemic and the 2023 dual writers’ and actors’ strikes, as well as cutbacks in spending at studios.
The production decline has left many in Hollywood without work for months or even years, leading to a widespread lobbying effort last year to bolster the state’s film and TV production incentive program. An increased annual cap, as well as expansion of eligibility criteria, was passed by lawmakers last year, buoying the industry’s hopes that filming could return to the Golden State.
The new inclusion of 20-minute shows to the qualification categories could also lead to more production in L.A., particularly for TV comedies, FilmLA said.
So far, more than 100 film and TV projects are among those awarded production incentives for filming in California under the revamped program, including TV shows like a reboot of “Baywatch” and a new “Jumanji” movie. In the fourth quarter of 2025, incentivized projects made up about 13% of all shoot days in the L.A. area.
Several of the projects awarded production incentives have relocated from other states or countries, including the action series “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” which returned to California from New York and Italy.
But it will take time for those awarded projects to show up in filming data, said Philip Sokoloski, FilmLA vice president of integrated communications.
“While the year-end numbers are disappointing, they are not unexpected,” he said in a statement. “Although our overall numbers remain low, there are dozens of incentivized projects that have yet to begin filming.”
For the fourth quarter, on-location production totaled 4,625 shoot days, down 21.1% compared to the same time period in 2024.
The steepest filming declines that quarter were in commercials, which saw a decline of 23.2% to 586 days compared to 2024. Television shoot days dropped 21.9% to 1,247 days. Feature film shoot days were down 19.7% to 473 from the fourth quarter in 2024, and FilmLA’s “other” category, which includes student films, documentaries and music videos, was down 20.4% to 2,319 days.
Within the TV category, filming for pilots saw a 62.5% decline that quarter compared to 2024 with 9 days, while dramas fell 36.4% to 336 days. Reality TV shoot days were down 9.8% to 698 days and TV comedy filming was down 6% to 110 days for the fourth quarter.