Nearly 20% drop in scripted film and TV production for greater LA area

The greater Los Angeles area suffered a nearly 20% drop in scripted film and television production in 2023 compared to the prior year, continuing several years of declines, according to a report released Wednesday.

FilmLA, the area’s film office, reported that the region’s scripted film and TV production fell to 183 projects last year, a drop of 45 from the prior year, and representing only a small fraction of the 990 total projects produced in all jurisdictions in 2023.

According to FilmLA, the greater Los Angeles area was home to nearly 23% of scripted projects in 2021, but that share fell to 22% in 2022 and slipped to 18% last year. The area has been losing ground to competing locations such as Canada, New York, Georgia and the United Kingdom, according to FilmLA.

“The entertainment industry feeds around $43 billion in wages into the state economy,” FilmLA President Paul Audley said in a statement. “But how long can California subsist — or help businesses and families thrive — on an ever-thinner slice of a shrinking production pie?”

The report notes that competing locations have built up financial incentives over the past three decades to lure productions away from Hollywood.

“We’re now at a place where inadequate investment in this industry places other economic supports at risk,” Audley said. “For each film industry supplier that closes his or her doors due to lack of steady work — those entrepreneurs no longer employ people, generate sales taxes or pay rent. Their former employees, lacking an income, then have no money for groceries, tuition and bills. When local industries decline the effects can be far ranging, so this is definitely a problem California needs to address.”

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chair Lindsey Horvath said in a statement that the declines in production over the past two years are being felt by the behind-the-scenes industry workers.

“Our community members’ livelihoods are on the line, which is why Los Angeles County launched the Entertainment Business Interruption Fund, and we continue to explore ways to incentivize local production,” Horvath said. “FilmLA’s report underscores the urgent work required to save an industry critical to our local economy and identity as Angelenos.”