Los Angeles Production Is Up 10% From Fall 2025, Stemming Tide Against Local Flight

Thanks in part to the expanded California Film and Television Tax Credit, Los Angeles is starting to stem the tide against the decline of local production, though there’s still a long way to undoing the damage.

In FilmLA’s latest quarterly report published on Tuesday, the permitting agency reported 5,121 days of on-location shooting in the first quarter of 2026. That’s a 10.7% improvement from the 4,625 shoot days recorded in the last quarter of 2025, but still 3.3% down from the 5,295 days recorded in the prior year quarter.

“We have a long way to go, but after years of decline, Hollywood is finally turning a corner with more productions and more jobs,” said L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. “We have worked hand in hand with industry partners to make filming in Los Angeles easier and more affordable. That means lowering costs, cutting red tape and creating a more predictable and efficient process for production. And we are not stopping here. City Hall will continue to partner with the industry to support good paying union jobs and expand economic opportunity across L.A.”

In Q1, FilmLA found that projects that received tax incentives through California’s expanded program accounted for nearly 7% of all shoot days taking place in Greater Los Angeles, including 21.8% of all feature film production and 17.1% of all television production happening on location. 

The one major blemish in the quarterly report, and the biggest factor in the year-over-year decrease, was the continued decline in reality TV shooting to just 463 shoot days, a steep 52% year-over-year decline and a staggering 71% below the five-year average. While shows like “The Real Housewives of Orange County” still shoot in Southern California, a survey from the analytics firm Luminate shows that the number of premiering reality TV shows shot in the entire United States has fallen 33% since 2022.

Still, the list of projects that did shoot in Los Angeles include Tony Gilroy’s Searchlight feature film “Behemoth!”, Fox’s “Baywatch” reboot, the final season of HBO’s “Hacks,” and new seasons of shows like Apple’s “The Studio” and “The Morning Show,” Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” and FX’s record-breaking comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

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