Why Film and TV Productions Are Leaving Los Angeles and What It Means for Hollywood
Los Angeles has been the center of global film and television production for over a century. However, that dominance is being challenged more seriously than at any point in Hollywood’s history. In fact, industry leaders are now openly warning that Los Angeles is at a turning point — one that could permanently reshape where entertainment is made and who makes it.
Furthermore, this is not a temporary blip caused by a single event. It is the result of several converging pressures that have been building for years and have now reached a level where major studios are making decisions that would have seemed unthinkable a decade ago.
This article explains exactly what is happening, why productions are leaving, where they are going, and what this means for the future of the entertainment industry.
The Scale of the Problem Is Larger Than Most People Realize
To understand the significance of what is happening, it helps to start with some numbers.
According to FilmLA, the nonprofit that tracks film production permits in Los Angeles, production activity in the region has declined dramatically over the past several years. Overall production in the Los Angeles area fell to its lowest level in decades. Feature film production specifically saw some of its worst numbers on record.
Meanwhile, other locations have seen dramatic growth. Georgia, for example, has become one of the busiest production hubs in the world. Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic are all capturing production that previously would have defaulted to Los Angeles.
The numbers tell a clear story. Production is leaving. The question is why — and whether it is reversible.
Why Productions Are Leaving Los Angeles
Several factors have combined to make Los Angeles increasingly difficult for productions of all sizes.
The Cost of Doing Business
Los Angeles has become one of the most expensive places in the world to make film and television. Labor costs, location fees, equipment rental, post-production, and general cost of living for crew members are all significantly higher than in competing locations.
Furthermore, the cost differential compared to states and countries offering tax incentives has become difficult for studios to ignore. When Georgia offers a 30% tax credit on production spend, when the UK offers comparable incentives, and when Canada provides a combination of favorable exchange rates and government support, the financial case for shooting in Los Angeles becomes harder to justify on large-budget productions.
California’s Tax Incentive Program Is Too Small
California has a film and television tax credit program. However, the program is significantly smaller and harder to access than comparable programs in competing states and countries. The annual allocation is oversubscribed, meaning many productions that apply do not receive credits. Consequently, productions that cannot secure California credits are often making location decisions based on where else they can access meaningful financial support.
Additionally, the application and qualification process for California’s program has been more complex than competing programs, creating administrative friction that some productions have found discouraging. The California Film Commission manages the program and has been advocating for its expansion.
Infrastructure Pressures
Los Angeles’s infrastructure challenges — traffic congestion, permit limitations, neighborhood restrictions on filming — add logistical friction to production that other locations do not have.
Shooting on location in Los Angeles often requires extensive permitting processes, restrictions on working hours, and managing the disruption that film production creates in dense urban neighborhoods. By contrast, locations purpose-built for production or with less dense populations offer significantly more flexibility.
The Rise of Purpose-Built Studios Elsewhere
Competing production hubs have invested heavily in purpose-built studio infrastructure. Pinewood Studios in the UK, which has expanded significantly in recent years, now offers some of the largest and most technically sophisticated production facilities in the world. Georgia’s production infrastructure has grown enormously, driven by the tax incentive program that attracted major studios and then the supporting infrastructure that followed.
As a result, the argument that Los Angeles has irreplaceable infrastructure has become less true with each passing year. World-class production facilities are now available in multiple locations globally.
The Human Cost of Production Leaving
Beyond the business and policy dimensions, production leaving Los Angeles has real human consequences for the tens of thousands of crew members, tradespeople, and support workers whose livelihoods depend on a thriving local production industry.
Cinematographers, gaffers, grips, art directors, prop makers, costume designers, makeup artists — the Hollywood workforce is not primarily composed of the famous names whose salaries attract attention. It is composed of skilled craft workers who have built careers and lives in Los Angeles around the expectation of steady local production.
When productions move to Georgia or the UK or Hungary, those jobs do not automatically move with them. Studios may bring key department heads and certain specialized crew from Los Angeles, but most crew are hired locally in the production location. The result is that crew members in Los Angeles find themselves with fewer local opportunities even as global production volumes continue to grow.
This workforce impact is driving much of the advocacy for expanding California’s tax incentive program. Industry unions and guilds have been among the most vocal supporters of increasing the program’s size, precisely because their members are feeling the production departure most directly.
Where Productions Are Going
Georgia
Georgia has become the most significant beneficiary of production leaving California. The combination of a generous tax credit, a large and growing crew base, diverse locations, and major studio investment has created a genuine production ecosystem in Atlanta and surrounding areas.
Major studio productions including multiple Marvel films and numerous streaming series have filmed in Georgia. This has attracted supporting infrastructure — equipment rental houses, post-production facilities, costume and prop vendors — that makes Georgia increasingly self-sufficient for large productions. The Georgia Department of Economic Development actively promotes the state’s production credentials.
The United Kingdom
The UK has been one of the most successful competitors for American production, particularly for large-budget projects. Pinewood Studios, Leavesden Studios, and a growing network of other facilities have attracted major productions. Furthermore, the UK’s combination of experienced crew, world-class facilities, favorable exchange rates, and strong tax incentives makes it competitive for productions of almost any scale.
British actors, directors, and crew working on American productions benefit from this dynamic. Additionally, the proximity to European locations gives UK-based productions easy access to diverse settings.
Canada
Canada has been capturing American production for decades, primarily through favorable exchange rates and tax incentives. Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal all have established production industries. Many American TV series are actually filmed in Canada with the settings dressed to look like American cities.
Emerging Locations
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries are all actively competing for international production. Each offers a combination of tax incentives, experienced crews (often trained on previous international productions), diverse locations, and lower overall costs than Los Angeles.
What Hollywood Is Doing About It
The response from California’s entertainment industry has involved advocacy, policy efforts, and structural adaptation.
Expanding the Tax Credit Program
The most consistent ask from the industry has been expanding California’s film and television tax credit program to compete more directly with other states and countries. Advocates have argued that the economic return from increased production activity justifies larger program expenditure.
In response to sustained advocacy, California’s legislature has passed several expansions of the program. However, the program remains smaller than many competitors and the demand consistently exceeds available credits.
The Wildfires Complication
The January 2026 wildfires in Los Angeles added a new dimension to the production challenge. The fires destroyed or damaged production facilities, disrupted ongoing shoots, and displaced crew members. Furthermore, the aftermath of the fires created additional uncertainty about the near-term production environment in the region.
However, the fires also generated significant sympathy and renewed calls for policy support for the local production industry. Several studios and streaming services made public commitments to production in Los Angeles in the wake of the fires, both as expressions of community solidarity and in response to public and political pressure. Studios like Netflix, Universal, and Disney committed to productions and investments in the LA area following the fires.
Streaming Services Reconsidering Global Production Strategies
The streaming services that drove enormous production growth in the late 2010s and early 2020s are now in a more cost-conscious phase. Consequently, location decisions are being scrutinized more carefully than during the peak spending years. This has made some major streamers more willing to move productions to lower-cost locations than they were when content spending was less constrained.
What This Means for the Future of Hollywood
Los Angeles is not going to stop being an entertainment center. The concentration of talent, creative infrastructure, executive and business operations, and industry culture that has accumulated in LA over a century does not disappear quickly. Moreover, many productions will continue to be made in Los Angeles for reasons that go beyond pure economics — access to talent, proximity to creative decision-makers, the specific character of LA as a location.
However, the era when Los Angeles was the default location for American film and television production — when you made things in LA unless you had a specific reason to go elsewhere — is over. In its place is a genuinely competitive global market for production location in which Los Angeles is one strong option among many.
The long-term trajectory depends heavily on policy decisions. If California expands its tax credit program substantially and streamlines access to it, the competitive position of Los Angeles improves significantly. If the program remains at its current scale, the structural forces pushing production to other locations will continue to operate.
For anyone interested in the business and policy dimensions of the entertainment industry, the Los Angeles production story is one of the most important ongoing developments in Hollywood right now.
For more on how technology is reshaping the entertainment and media landscape, our guide on technology trends shaping 2026 covers the broader context. Additionally, for understanding how AI specifically is changing creative industries, our article on marketing agencies using AI covers the practical dimension in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are film productions leaving Los Angeles?
Productions are leaving primarily because of the high cost of filming in Los Angeles combined with significant financial incentives available in competing states and countries. Georgia, the UK, Canada, and several other locations offer tax credits that can amount to 20 to 30% of production spend, which is difficult for studios to ignore on large-budget projects.
Where are most productions going instead of Los Angeles?
Georgia has become the most significant alternative for American productions, driven by its 30% tax credit program. The United Kingdom, Canada, and increasingly Hungary and Australia are also capturing significant production that previously would have been made in Los Angeles.
Is Hollywood dying?
No. Los Angeles remains the center of the entertainment industry’s creative, executive, and business operations. However, the physical production of film and television has become more globally distributed. Hollywood as a creative and business ecosystem remains dominant even as physical production has spread geographically.
What are California’s film tax incentives?
California operates a film and television tax credit program managed by the California Film Commission. The program provides tax credits on qualifying production spend in California. However, the program is smaller and more competitive to access than comparable programs in other states and countries, which limits its effectiveness in retaining production.
How do the LA wildfires affect film production?
The January 2026 wildfires damaged production facilities, disrupted active shoots, and displaced crew members, adding short-term disruption to the existing structural challenges. However, the fires also generated renewed political attention to the importance of the local production industry and led several major studios to make public commitments to continued LA production.
This article reflects information available as of June 2026. Production trends and policy developments continue to evolve.