Stats Show LA Film Industry is Struggling to Recover After Fires

The fires at the start of 2025 were devastating for Los Angeles in general and its dominant industry, film and TV. With houses and businesses burnt down, work was scarce as people put their lives back together. This was a bummer for many reasons, one of them being the fact that at the end of 2024, production in LA rose around 6%, which was a promising sign for 2025. But in the world, post-fires, numbers are down. FilmLA's latest report reveals a significant drop in on-location filming within the Greater Los Angeles area for the first quarter of 2025. Between January and March, total shoot days decreased by 22.4%, adding up to only 5,295 days across all major categories. Television production saw the sharpest decline at 30.5% (1,670 days), while feature film shoots fell by 28.9% (451 days).Commercials experienced a smaller dip of 2.1% (796 days). The report also noted that recent fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades had a minimal effect on overall filming, historically representing only about 1.3% of regional shoot days, though approximately 545 locations within the burn zones remain inaccessible for filming.TV drama production continued its downward trend in this first quarter as well, falling 38.9% to 440 shoot days. Within this category, 77 shoot days (17.5%) were attributed to projects receiving California's Film & Television Tax Credit. TV comedy shoots also decreased, dropping 29.9% to 110 days, while TV reality production fell 26.4% to 969 shoot days.Philip Sokoloski, FilmLA's VP of Integrated Communications said of the situation, “Loss of filming opportunity in no way compares to the cost of the Eaton and Palisades Fires in terms of loss of life, resident displacement, and property damage. The fires sent many productions scrambling to reschedule shoots and displaced hundreds of industry workers from their homes. But their impact on local filming levels appears to have been temporary.”Cleanup for the fires is underway, and Los Angeles is working with FilmLa to bring production back to the city. That involved trying to increase tax incentives in California. While all rolls out, Sokoloski said, “The California Production Coalition estimates that the average location shoot adds $670,000 and 1,500 jobs a day to a local economy. And the County of Los Angeles and Beacon Economics report that there are 10,500 entertainment-related businesses in the state. Numbers like these make it plain: California can’t afford to surrender any more work to its competitors.”These are huge losses when numbers are down, so everyone needs to make a consorted effort to bring them back up. You can make a lot of money when things can shoot in Los Angeles, but to sustain a network and business here, we need local officials to permit it easier, and we need incentives to make sure it doesn't break the bank to be a Los Angeles production. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Apr 15, 2025 - 20:57

Stats Show LA Film Industry is Struggling to Recover After Fires

The fires at the start of 2025 were devastating for Los Angeles in general and its dominant industry, film and TV. With houses and businesses burnt down, work was scarce as people put their lives back together.

This was a bummer for many reasons, one of them being the fact that at the end of 2024, production in LA rose around 6%, which was a promising sign for 2025.

But in the world, post-fires, numbers are down.

FilmLA's latest report reveals a significant drop in on-location filming within the Greater Los Angeles area for the first quarter of 2025.

Between January and March, total shoot days decreased by 22.4%, adding up to only 5,295 days across all major categories. Television production saw the sharpest decline at 30.5% (1,670 days), while feature film shoots fell by 28.9% (451 days).

Commercials experienced a smaller dip of 2.1% (796 days). The report also noted that recent fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades had a minimal effect on overall filming, historically representing only about 1.3% of regional shoot days, though approximately 545 locations within the burn zones remain inaccessible for filming.

TV drama production continued its downward trend in this first quarter as well, falling 38.9% to 440 shoot days. Within this category, 77 shoot days (17.5%) were attributed to projects receiving California's Film & Television Tax Credit. TV comedy shoots also decreased, dropping 29.9% to 110 days, while TV reality production fell 26.4% to 969 shoot days.

Philip Sokoloski, FilmLA's VP of Integrated Communications said of the situation, “Loss of filming opportunity in no way compares to the cost of the Eaton and Palisades Fires in terms of loss of life, resident displacement, and property damage. The fires sent many productions scrambling to reschedule shoots and displaced hundreds of industry workers from their homes. But their impact on local filming levels appears to have been temporary.”

Cleanup for the fires is underway, and Los Angeles is working with FilmLa to bring production back to the city. That involved trying to increase tax incentives in California.

While all rolls out, Sokoloski said, “The California Production Coalition estimates that the average location shoot adds $670,000 and 1,500 jobs a day to a local economy. And the County of Los Angeles and Beacon Economics report that there are 10,500 entertainment-related businesses in the state. Numbers like these make it plain: California can’t afford to surrender any more work to its competitors.”

These are huge losses when numbers are down, so everyone needs to make a consorted effort to bring them back up. You can make a lot of money when things can shoot in Los Angeles, but to sustain a network and business here, we need local officials to permit it easier, and we need incentives to make sure it doesn't break the bank to be a Los Angeles production.

Let us know what you think in the comments.