As Los Angeles’s film and television production reaches all-time lows, iconic studio lots are more silent than ever.
Thousands of employees in the film industry are thus having difficulty making ends meet. California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested expanding tax credits for films shot in California in an effort to address the problem.
“Some of the lowest production levels we have ever seen.”
What we know: Renowned studio lots in Los Angeles are starting to resemble ghost towns, despite the city once being the undeniable center of the film industry.
“It is very tragic to see because that means that people are not working,” Film LA’s Philip Sokolowsky remarked. He has been keeping tabs on filmmaking and location projects throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
“What we’ve seen tragically in recent months is some of the lowest levels of production ever observed,” he stated.
Only the pandemic year was worse than 2024, which ended up being the second-slowest year for filming in Los Angeles. 2025 doesn’t appear to be getting any better. The production has already decreased by 22.4%. Thousands of people in the industry, including supervising sound editor Bobbi Banks, are being impacted.
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“I can just say for the last 18 months, I’ve only worked three out of those 18 months,” Banks stated.
According to insiders, they are burning through their money and living on the meager income they have in the hopes that production will return to Los Angeles. However, it hasn’t yet.
“The uncertainty for us is like, we don’t know when we’re gonna be working,” Banks said.
“Everyone’s moving their production facilities to cheaper states and cheaper locations, and really the global economy is just kind of swallowing us up,” a different actor from Hollywood stated.
In order to compete with other states and nations, California Governor Gavin Newsom is suggesting a $750 million yearly tax credit to retain jobs in Los Angeles and throughout the state.
Encompass Music Partners founder Peter Rotter is also urging assistance with post-production.
“What we need to do is we need to get some incentivized monies and pour back in and bring life back into this community,” Rotter stated.
The effect on nearby companies
Local viewpoint: People outside of the film industry are also having difficulties. This is also having an effect on other local businesses.
Since everything in Burbank depends on the entertainment sector and they are now not running at full capacity, everyone who owns a small business is worried that we may have to close. Just do whatever it takes, I would like to ask our leadership, the governor, the mayor of Los Angeles, and Film LA. Steve Hager, the owner of Chili John’s in Burbank, advised doing whatever it takes to fix it.
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