Major Hollywood studios have gone from spending 72% of its production budgets within the United States at the end of the 20th century to spending more than half of that budget outside of the country, according to a new study commissioned by the entertainment industry’s major unions.
The study conducted by Ernst & Young surveyed film and television production spending from major American studios from 1999 to 2024 for movies with budgets of at least $5 million and TV shows with budgets of at least $1 million per episode.
For film productions, the study found that over the quarter-century span surveyed:
- — The share of production spending on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 74% to 42% (a 32 percentage-point decrease).
- — The share of films by major U.S. studios on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 66% to 54%.
- — The share of cast and crew working on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 72% to 43%.
- — The share of production spending in the U.S. among the 25 highest-budget films by major U.S. studios declined by 40%.
On the TV side, the study found:
- — The share of production spending on television episodes filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 94% to 64%.
- — The share of television episodes by major U.S. studios filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 96% to 70%.
- — The share of cast and crew working on television episodes filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 86% to 58%.
The survey comes after a bipartisan bill that would establish a federal film tax incentive was introduced in Congress last month. Unions, studios and producers have all pointed to such an incentive as vital to making the United States more competitive as a production hub.
The incentive would offer a 20% base rate on cast and crew spending for all productions based in the U.S. with the opportunity to increase that rate to 30% with several uplifts, including ones for independent productions, productions from studios that relocate a significant portion of their projects back to the U.S., and shoots in federally designated disaster areas, which currently includes Los Angeles due to the 2025 wildfires.
All of Hollywood’s major unions pitched in on commissioning the EY study, including the Writers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, Directors Guild of America, LiUNA, IATSE, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The study joins one published last month by the Motion Picture Association that estimated that if the federal tax incentive is passed by the end of this year, annual production spending in the U.S. could double by 2035.
