Although Hollywood production rallied in the last three months of 2024, it was not enough to turn around last year’s industry-wide slump, according to a new report.
Overall production from October to December increased 6.2% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonprofit organization FilmLA, which tracks on-location shoot days in Greater Los Angeles.
That works out to 5,860 shoot days during the fourth quarter of 2024, versus 5,520 for the same stretch a year earlier.
That was good news for the fourth quarter, but overall production last year was still down 5.6% from 2023 to 23,480 shoot days, making 2024 the second-least productive year charted by FilmLA. The worst year was pandemic-disrupted 2020, FilmLA said.
Many in the entertainment industry had been awaiting a return to normalcy in 2025, hopeful that the effects of the pandemic, the dual labor strikes of 2023 and the sharp cutback in production at studios would be behind them. But the recent Southern California fires and the widespread loss of homes, buildings and filming locations have thrown that all into uncertainty.
“No aspect of life in Greater Los Angeles is unaffected by recent fire events,” FilmLA President Paul Audley said in a statement. “Many who participate in the region’s entertainment economy are directly affected by this tragedy; and many places beloved by nationwide audiences may never return to the screen.“
The gains in the fourth quarter came from bumps in feature film production, which was up 82.4% to 589 shoot days — largely due to indie film activity — as well as scripted television dramas, which increased to 528 days, or more than five times its total from 2023.
Commercial production had a slight increase of 2.3% to 763 shoot days.
But reality TV filming in L.A. continued to lag, as it has for months. Production was down 45.7% for the fourth quarter to 774 shoot days. For the year, reality TV production fell 45.9% to 3,905 shoot days.
In an attempt to curb runaway production and lure filming back to California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed an increase to the state’s film and TV tax credit program.
The proposal would expand the annual tax credit to $750 million, up from its current total of $330 million, which would make California the top state for capped film incentive programs, surpassing New York. In its Wednesday report, FilmLA said it supported such an increase to the program.
