Overview
- Average stage use in Los Angeles registered 62% in the first half of 2025, little changed from 63% in 2024 and down from 69% in 2023 and a 96% peak in 2016.
- The number of projects on participant stages rose 5% from 2023 to 2024, yet total shoot days fell 8%, with scripted television shoot days plunging 23%.
- On-location filming in L.A. continued to contract, dropping 20% in 2023, 14% in 2024 and 16.1% in 2025, according to FilmLA.
- Despite softer demand, capacity keeps expanding: L.A. counted about 8.3 million square feet of stages in 2025, and new facilities opened in 2026 at East End Studios’ Mission Campus in January and Cinespace’s Woodland Hills site in March.
- Rival hubs are scaling up their inventories, with the U.K. growing to 7.7 million square feet and New York to 4.4 million, as California production employment fell about 40% from 136,000 in 2022 to 82,000 by September 2025.