Aug. 26, 2026 7:30 AM PT

To the editor: The continuing loss of film and television production from California — and Los Angeles County in particular — should be treated as a five-alarm fire (“How L.A. stopped being Hollywood’s leading star,” Aug. 20).

California has expanded tax incentives, but eligibility restrictions and funding limits still leave us competing at a disadvantage with other states and countries. Meanwhile, production, jobs and supporting businesses continue to leave.

Policymakers should not view incentives simply as lost tax revenue. If the industry continues to shrink, those revenues will disappear anyway. A robust entertainment industry generates enormous economic activity and tax revenue through wages, businesses, property, sales and the thousands of companies and workers that support production.

California needs incentives that are robust, long-term, predictable and aggressively competitive, with the goal not merely of slowing the decline but bringing production back.

The entertainment industry is fundamental to Los Angeles County’s economy and identity. We are past the point of making marginal changes around the edges. We need decisive action now.

Jeff Prang, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The Los Angeles Times seems to think this article is a critique of the L.A. government. But if The Times reporters would just read the newspaper’s own past articles on the subject of tax incentives for film production, they would see that this policy has been a loser for decades.

Tax write-offs for film companies were first based on the idea that if we give tax breaks to the likes of Steven Spielberg, the state will get that money back in jobs generated. But over the years, the tax breaks increased dramatically, as every state in the country wanted the work. Now, these tax incentives have become incredibly lucrative. In tax terms, that’s called subsidized wealth.

I hate to see movie production leaving, but taxpayers providing production costs so the wealthy Hollywood elite can make a movie is ridiculous.

Michael Harold, West L.A.

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To the editor: There’s a whole other reason “Hollywood” is no longer the center of motion picture production. Today, movies can be shot on phones, with editing, visual effects, color timing and sound mixing completed on a laptop.

The vast and expensive infrastructure that was essential for more than a century has become superfluous. It’s no longer a benefit to studios, which have become little more than banks and distributors; it’s a burden.

Thomas Bliss, Los Angeles
This writer is a film producer.