Is L.A. Film Production on the Verge of a New Golden Age?

Even before the fires, film production in L.A. had sunk to an all-time low, but billions have been committed to new studios — along with some hefty tax breaks

Words by STEVE SANDERS
Illustration by DEREK CHARM

As Angelenos sift through the ashes of the Palisades and Eaton fires, Colleen Bell has turned her attention to something far more prosaic: taxes. Indeed, for a film industry already on its knees from the triple blows of pandemic shutdowns, the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and the fizzling of the golden age of streaming, production taxes — more specifically, avoidance of them — have become existential.

“The tax credit program is right now the most important priority for us. We absolutely need to prevent more runaway productions from California,” says Bell, executive director of the California Film Commission, the state body that hands out tax breaks to film productions. “The story of California’s entertainment industry is one of creativity and perseverance. We will overcome adversity because that’s what we do.”

Even before the fires incinerated more than 12,000 homes and businesses, the state of Los Angeles film production had been pushed to the brink. Says Paul Audley of Film LA, the group that permits productions throughout the region, “If you take out the COVID year, 2024 was the worst year on record in terms of shoot days for L.A.” Which is why Governor Gavin Newsom, weeks before the fires, announced plans to double the film and television tax credit program from $330 million to $750 million annually. The increase, he argued, would stem the tide of productions moving to places like Georgia and New York, which have lured productions with generous incentives.

The entertainment industry employs more than 680,000 people in the state, adds $115 billion annually to the regional economy, and is synonymous with California. But it stands on the precipice. Screenwriter Alexandra Pechman, an L.A. native, knows more than 20 people who lost their homes in the fires. She and writer Sarah Adina Smith became so alarmed about what the tragedy could do to the industry that in January they started the “Stay in L.A.” campaign. Their petition, which called for Newsom to uncap tax credits for three years and for studios to pledge an additional 10 percent of their budgets for L.A. productions, quickly garnered more than 20,000 signatures from A-listers like Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, and Bette Midler, as well as showrunners, gaffers, and editors. “We need a flood of new work to help our beloved city rebuild itself and ensure L.A.’s future viability as a place where craftspeople, film workers, and businesses thrive,” they wrote.

There are some green shoots. Investment giant Hackman Capital Partners is plowing ahead with a $1 billion revamp of Television City at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The expansion of the site that was home to All in the Family and American Idol would double the number of sound stages and add several hundred thousand square feet of office space.

A $500 million expansion of the Warner Bros. Ranch lot in Burbank is set to be completed this year, and a $1 billion overhaul of the 100-year-old Radford Studio Center, the former location of Gilligan’s Island and Seinfeld, is also expected to be done by 2028.

Tax Reset for LA Film Industry — LA Wants You!

For Hollywood, however, the next couple of years are critical. With so many people displaced and homes and locations destroyed, the fear is that some will relocate and never come back, that a talent drain will become a torrent. But the depth and breadth of talent in the state is in Hollywood’s favor. “Everybody wants to shoot in California,” Bell says. “We have a continent’s worth of talent in one state.”

Bell’s bet is that a tax reset could ignite a rebirth that would fill the empty sound stages and get underemployed production hands back to work. If approved — the increase is going through the budget process in Sacramento — the breaks could start being handed out on July 1.

Meanwhile, some productions had already returned to work. Hacks, the hit Max show, got back to shooting its third season in and around L.A. in January despite the destruction of some of its prime locations. The 7,000-sq.-ft. Spanish Colonial estate in Altadena that served as the “side mansion” for Deborah Vance — the caustic comedian played by Jean Smart — was destroyed in the Eaton fire. It was one of countless well-known properties that were lost, including the ultramodern, $83 million hilltop estate featured in the opening episode of the final season of Succession, and the home at 1090 Rubio Street used in Risky Business and This Is Us. Film LA has sent staff fanning out across the city to help productions find new locations to replace ones that were destroyed or irreparably altered — anything to keep them from moving elsewhere.

“We are seeing the potential for things to come back. The new stages on Warner Ranch are already pretty fully booked when they open in 2026,” Audley says. “I’m not telling people here that we ever expect to see us back at peak TV time, but we certainly would like to get back up toward the 2019 levels in order to sustain the business here.”

Another challenge has been the exodus of reality television and unscripted shows, which accounted for a large portion of work but do not qualify under the tax credit system. Unscripted shooting days last year plunged 45 percent from the previous year. Newsom’s proposed tax credit does not include unscripted programs.

For Pechman, the stakes could not be clearer. “Studios are building huge facilities in Nevada and New Mexico and Georgia,” she says. “L.A. could become a place where people don’t make movies anymore. Look at the Rust Belt and all those great American cities. This could become a place where people once made movies, and many, many jobs will move elsewhere.”