The impact of California’s expanded production tax credit has yet to have an impact on film and TV shooting in Los Angeles, as the number of shoot days in LA County in Q3 of 2025 declined 13% year-over-year, according to FilmLA’s latest report.
“We know that it will take a little while for new incentive-backed projects to get underway and be reflected in our data, so we were not surprised to see on-location production continue to slip this summer despite the state’s increased investment,” FilmLA said in a statement. “Fortunately, we’ve already begun to see early signs of these incentives having their desired effect; we’re excited to be taking calls from productions looking to line up their locations and pull permits.”
In Q3, FilmLA recorded 4,380 shoot days in Los Angeles, down from 5,048 the year before. Much of that drop can be attributed to a 20% year-over-year drop in TV shooting days to 1,441, which is a staggering 57.9% below the five-year average.
While some stalwart reality and game shows like ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and CBS’ “The Price is Right” still shoot in Los Angeles, reality TV continues to leave the county for other markets. FilmLA reported just 649 shoot days for reality and game shows, down 31.2% year-over-year and a staggering 67% below the five-year average.
Shooting days for commercials also dropped to 668, down nearly 18% year-over-year and 38.8% from the five-year average. The sole bright spot came in features, which saw a 9.7% increase to 522 shoot days, though that is still 30.4% below the five-year average.
According to FilmLA, 18 television series approved for California’s expanded tax incentive program are set to shoot in Los Angeles in the coming months, though the start dates for those series have largely not been determined yet. 22% of LA’s feature shooting and 9% of its TV shooting came from projects that received tax incentives under the program’s previous format.
“LA’s creative industry is too important to let go without a fight,”FilmLA said. As part of our ongoing focus on streamlining and enhancing the on-location filmmaking process, we are convening industry listening sessions and using what we learn to improve our service delivery and recommend actionable process and policy improvements to our valued government partners.”
More to come…
