Doomsday warning for Hollywood as LA shoot days plummet in latest figures

While Hollywood films seem to be rebounding at the box office — with recent projections hinting that this could be the first domestic $10 billion year since 2019 — production in Los Angeles is still sagging.

FilmLA released its new second quarter report on Thursday, revealing there was a 13% drop in film and TV production shoot days from the same time period.

The company logged 4,711 shoot days for the second quarter of this year (April-June), a 12.7% drop from Q2 in 2025 (5,394 shoot days).

The tally also fell 8% short of this year’s first quarter, where there were 5,121 shoot days logged, with a whopping 35.9% drop from the five-year average.

There have been 170 film and television projects that were awarded production tax credits through the California Film & TV Tax Credit Program, which includes 41 new projects announced earlier this month.

While the downward production trend is troubling, there were bright spots in the report, with strong gains coming in several metrics from television productions.

Overall television production (1,607 shoot days in Q2) was down 27.7% from Q2 2025 (2,224 shoot days), but the TV drama segment was down just 6.4% from last year.

However, there was a 34.4% jump in TV shoot days from Q2 (1,607) over Q1 (1,196), with several prominent small screen productions filming in the area.

Several shows such as Fox’s high-profile reboot of “Baywatch,” and Hulu’s “Prison Break” reboot were filmed in LA, along with returning shows such as “Ballard” (Amazon), “Bosch: Start if Watch” (MGM+), and “The Night Agent” (Netflix).

Plus, TV drama shoot days (732) increased 55% from this year’s first quarter (472), though there were sharp declines elsewhere.

There were 676 reality television shoot days in Q2 2026, a 39.9% drop from the same time period last year (1,124).

Still, reality production picked up 32% from the first quarter of this year, where 476 shoot days were logged by FilmLA, with shows such as “America’s Got Talent,” “American Idol,” “Love Thy Nader” and “The Valley Persian Style” filmed in the greater LA area.

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TV comedies logged just 57 shoot days, a 43% drop from 2025 (100 shoot days) and a short 9% drop from 2026 Q1 (110 days), with “Shrinking,” “The Studio” and “The Paper” filming in LA.

Feature film production was down as well, with the 443 shoot days marking a 19.9% drop from Q2 2025 (553), with a 36% drop from Q1 2026 (687 shoot days), plus a 40.2% drop from the five-year average.

Commercial production dropped 21.5% year-over year, down to 543 shoot days in Q2 2026 from 692 days from the same time last year, and down 32% from last quarter this year (794 shoot days).

Despite the decreases in several metrics, LA mayor Karen Bass still touted the progress FilmLA has made during this time.

“While there is still much work to do, FilmLA’s quarterly report is proof that incentives are working: local incentivized productions are on the rise, creating good-paying union jobs and realizing economic opportunity for Angelenos,” Bass said in a statement.

“I created the state’s first-ever film and tv tax credit, fought to expand it to $750 million, and I’m doubling down by fighting for an un-capped tax credit that includes competition reality television and “above-the-line” spend, while also fighting to create the first-ever federal film incentive. We’ll keep cutting red tape and slashing permit fees at the local level, because this industry is core to the history, culture, and economic
power of Los Angeles,” she concluded.