{"id":871429,"date":"2026-06-16T15:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/871429\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T15:31:17","slug":"hollywood-exodus-why-film-and-tv-production-is-fleeing-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/871429\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Exodus: Why Film and TV Production Is Fleeing Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cBaywatch<\/a>\u201d was a staple of low-budget, first-run syndication in the 1990s, as natural to Los Angeles as David Hasselhoff\u2019s chest hair and as defining of the city in that era as the O.J. trial and the Sunset Strip.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the time it ended its run in 1999, it had become too costly to produce at a profit.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the show\u2019s red trunks and swimsuits returned to L.A. lifeguard towers in March of this year. Like an endangered pelican reintroduced to its native habitat, the Fox reboot was hailed as a triumph for the industry\u2019s hometown, which is suffering through a long slide in production activity. Gov. Gavin Newsom bragged that the show was back \u201cwhere it belongs,\u201d at a cost to the state of $21 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon, however, the producers ran into obstacles. Officials from the county Beaches and Harbors Department and the California Coastal Commission told them they couldn\u2019t park their trucks overnight, light fires or drive on the sand.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re a lifeguard show,\u201d \u201cBaywatch\u201d co-creator Greg Bonann remembers saying. \u201cWhat do you mean we can\u2019t drive a truck on the beach?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSuddenly the show was at risk of becoming the wrong kind of symbol: this one, a victim of California\u2019s tangle of regulations. No one in power \u2014 not Newsom or L.A. Mayor Karen Bass \u2014 wanted to read the headline about \u201cBaywatch\u201d bailing out of Los Angeles. When elected leaders were summoned to the Fox lot to smooth things over, the show held all the leverage. \u201cAfter a while, you have to sit down with the right people and say, \u2018Guys, do we want to have this show here or not?\u2019\u201d Bonann says.<\/p>\n

\n\tLos Angeles has been the world\u2019s entertainment capital for 100 years and still has an unmatched concentration of talent and infrastructure. But in an age of globalization, with easy international travel and communication, the city is losing its edge.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeter Oumanski<\/p>\n

\n\tEverything costs more in L.A., starting with labor, due to the high cost of living and elaborate union agreements. Other states and countries have developed crew bases of their own, are more solicitous of producers\u2019 needs and offer more generous incentives. Producers are also under pressure from the audience to deliver ever more spectacular experiences. Creating a premium product \u2014 at a price \u2014 often means going overseas.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese trends have been underway for 20 or 30 years. But since the end of the streaming bubble in 2022, America has lost 73,000 production jobs \u2014 two-thirds of them in Los Angeles \u2014 bringing the issue of foreign competition to a rapid boil.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the chaotic race for L.A. mayor, the candidates have clashed over who lost Hollywood. At a debate in May, Councilmember Nithya Raman accused Bass of failing to cut red tape. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened in \u2018Baywatch,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThe city and county weren\u2019t talking to each other.\u201d Spencer Pratt, the reality star who conceded last week, bemoaned the sorry state of California\u2019s incentive program: \u201cEven Massachusetts has better tax credits than Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe contenders for governor are also battling to show that they can revive the industry with the right package of incentives. Newsom doubled the state program to $750 million in 2025. Everyone seems to agree it should be more \u2014 maybe a lot more \u2014 and that it should cover above-the-line salaries for actors, writers and producers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn my understanding, California\u2019s rebate is one of the least beneficial for anybody who is financing motion pictures and television,\u201d says Charles Roven, co-founder of Atlas Entertainment and producer of \u201cOppenheimer\u201d and \u201cWonder Woman.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s capped and it has no above-the-line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the state can do only so much to compete with the 81 countries that have embraced filming as an economic development tool. The U.K. alone spent $2.2 billion on film and TV subsidies in 2024, and national incentives are often stacked on top of local rebates.<\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia \u201cwent into this knife fight without a weapon, and now folks are bringing guns,\u201d says Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who is the favorite to succeed Newsom.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she runs for reelection, Bass has to walk a fine line between projecting confidence in the city\u2019s ability to retain production and lobbying for more federal help for Hollywood. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re going to lose our industry,\u201d Bass says, noting that studios and networks are still grappling with the business changes wrought by the streaming revolution. \u201cWhen all of that settles, I feel confident that we can maintain our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce a pipe dream, the idea of a federal film subsidy now seems like a real possibility.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn order to save this industry in America, we need to be competitive with tax credits,\u201d says Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is working on introducing an incentive bill in Congress. \u201cWe have a lot of our influence around the world as a result of American film and TV. We don\u2019t want to lose that soft power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdvocates warn that unless the U.S. responds to foreign subsidies, Hollywood is at risk of becoming Detroit, which has bled jobs as automakers pursued low-wage labor and generous incentives in other states and abroad.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is supposed to be the film capital of the world,\u201d said Noelle Stehman, a co-founder of the grassroots group Stay in L.A., at a rally for Raman\u2019s campaign. \u201cIt should be the cheapest and easiest place to film. In fact, it is the most cumbersome and the most expensive. That cannot continue. If we don\u2019t do something quickly, this is going to become the next Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMike Miller, vice president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, was raised in Cleveland. He also sees a parallel. \u201cI watched the demise of steel and rubber and automotive manufacturing as I grew up,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is identical in many ways. We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor every show like \u201cBaywatch\u201d that shoots in Los Angeles, there\u2019s another reboot that doesn\u2019t. \u201cThe Rockford Files,\u201d the 1970s drama about a hard-boiled L.A. detective, will return to NBC next January. It\u2019s still set in L.A., but it\u2019s filming outside Atlanta. \u201cLittle House on the Prairie,\u201d another mainstay of the 1970s NBC lineup, was originally filmed in Simi Valley. The version coming to Netflix in July was shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba.<\/p>\n

\n\tCanada offers a 16% labor credit on top of Manitoba\u2019s 30% incentive \u2014 though that was only part of the reason to go there. Produced by CBS, \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d also benefits from lower costs, a favorable exchange rate and available soundstages. Though not in America, Winnipeg also was a better fit creatively, with panoramic vistas that resemble the show\u2019s Midwest setting.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the Michael Landon version was made, L.A. was the obvious choice. But it\u2019s no longer the default. With bigger screens at home, TV looks more and more like film and has the costs to match. Going abroad can make the difference between the show existing and not.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese changes are accelerating. In the 2000s, \u201cScrubs\u201d filmed for nine years at an abandoned hospital in the San Fernando Valley. The reboot is made in British Columbia, with producers shuttling north to keep tabs on the set. \u201cIt is an absolute creative bummer to me that I\u2019m shooting that show in Vancouver,\u201d says creator Bill Lawrence. \u201cIt was a shock to my system. I wasn\u2019t prepared for a show that existed, first and foremost, here to be cost prohibitive here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe economics can be even harder for features. \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d released in 1987, was filmed in L.A.; the 2024 sequel was made in the U.K. \u201cThe Social Network,\u201d from 2010, was shot in L.A. (and on location in Boston, Baltimore and the U.K.); \u201cThe Social Reckoning,\u201d due out in October, was made in Vancouver. \u201cSpaceballs,\u201d from 1988, shot in L.A. \u201cSpaceballs 2\u201d is shooting in Australia. \u201dThe studios want you to make everything for less money,\u201d says Brian Grazer, whose Imagine Entertainment is producing the latter sequel. \u201cYou\u2019re forced to go out of the country to make it for less money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tU.S. states that once poached California\u2019s production jobs are now falling behind as well. Georgia, which grew exponentially in the 2010s, is down nearly 50% from its peak in 2022, despite an uncapped incentive that includes above-the-line costs. \u201cAvengers: Endgame\u201d was made in Atlanta in 2017. The new \u201cAvengers\u201d films are being made in London.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe U.K. incentive not only covers up-front salaries for actors, writers, directors and producers \u2014 for those with a U.K. partner, it also covers back-end pay, a deal that is almost unique in the world and hard for studios to pass up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGovernor Gavin Newsom<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI call it the gift that keeps on giving,\u201d says Roven, who shot two films in the U.K. last year. \u201cIf the project that you\u2019re doing actually starts to make money, that rebate percentage is paid back to the company when they pay profit participants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndependent filmmakers have to watch every penny, and for them the math is nearly impossible to ignore. Brady Corbet\u2019s 2024 drama \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d takes place in Pennsylvania and was filmed in Hungary. His next movie, \u201cThe Origin of the World,\u201d is set in California and will be shot in Portugal and South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s much cheaper making films elsewhere than it is here,\u201d says producer David Kaplan, whose company, Kaplan Morrison, makes Corbet\u2019s films. \u201cTo pull off a film that looks like it costs multiple times what it actually does, you have to go somewhere where you get that financial trade-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndie producers can make things more cheaply in the U.S. if they shoot nonunion. \u201cObsession,\u201d the breakout horror hit, was filmed in Los Angeles for just $750,000. But with fewer domestic productions overall, IATSE has been working harder to \u201cflip\u201d the nonunion ones, which drives up the cost.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe films I grew up making, for $500,000 or $1 million, the unions are really interested in having those be signatory projects,\u201d Kaplan says.<\/p>\n

\n\tIATSE jurisdiction extends only to North America, part of the reason projects go to Europe. Employers also pay much less for healthcare abroad.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love working with unions. They serve a great purpose,\u201d says John Hadity, a production finance consultant. \u201cBut there are rules, minimums, all that stuff. Labor doesn\u2019t work that way in other countries. In Europe and the U.K., there\u2019s a lot more flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Gray House,\u201d the Prime Video series set during the Civil War, was shot in Romania. \u201cIf we could have shot it in and around where it took place in Richmond, Virginia, at anywhere close to the same budget, we would have stayed in America,\u201d says producer Lori McCreary, a past president of the Producers Guild of America. \u201cIt was two-thirds, or less, the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0In Romania, she wasn\u2019t required to hire cable pullers and other crew that would be mandated in the U.S. \u201cThose are all very good jobs for Americans that I\u2019m not able to provide when I\u2019m shooting something overseas,\u201d McCreary says. \u201cI would much rather put all of these people to work in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn May 4, 2025, President Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films. Likely both illegal and impossible, this idea was nevertheless taken in Hollywood as an encouraging sign. At least he recognized the problem.<\/p>\n

\n\tSchiff circulated draft legislation that would create a 15% federal credit for labor costs, roughly equivalent to Canada\u2019s incentive. The Motion Picture Association pushed for 20%, plus 5% bonuses for filming in a disaster area or an enterprise zone. (Due to the fires, all of L.A. County would qualify.) As in other countries, the federal credit would stack on top of state incentives.<\/p>\n

\n\tPlenty of Democrats are on board, but to get anywhere, the proposal needs bipartisan support. Rep. Brian Jack, a Republican from suburban Atlanta, is said to be willing to cosponsor the bill in the House. But other Republicans appear to be waiting for a thumbs-up from the White House.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve been working very hard to get an affirmative statement out of the president that he\u2019s open to Congress looking at a federal incentive,\u201d says Scott Karol, who is working on the issue with Jon Voight, one of Trump\u2019s \u201cHollywood ambassadors.\u201d \u201cWe think that will open up the floodgates, and you\u2019ll see a caucus of bipartisan politicians that will come out in support of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump has embraced state support for farming, coal mining and advanced manufacturing, and the U.S. subsidizes other industries as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHollywood is not asking for special treatment,\u201d Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, said at a hearing in March. \u201cThis is something that is standard in the United States across industries that we have determined that we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor now, no bill has been introduced. As of June 4, Schiff says his Republican colleagues are waiting on \u201csmoke signals from the White House.\u201d Supporters hope that if Democrats take control of Congress, the push for a federal incentive could be a rare area of cooperation next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is good for the economy,\u201d says actor Zachary Levi, who voted for Trump. \u201cThis is not a handout. We want to be able to lead the world in telling great stories, and I think the president does too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFederal intervention cannot come fast enough in Los Angeles, where the post-peak era has rippled across the local economy. Crews are out of work, but so are white-collar executives and those who work in ancillary businesses.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m down 50%,\u201d says Corri Levelle, CEO of Sandy Rose Floral in North Hollywood, which supplies silk and fresh flowers to film sets. \u201cWe\u2019ve had ups and downs in business, but it\u2019s gone on too long. We can\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis spring, chef Michael Cimarusti announced the closure of Connie & Ted\u2019s in West Hollywood, one of a wave of restaurants to shut down following the 2023 writers and actors strikes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had a lot of crew folks that were regulars who simply were not able to afford to dine out the way they used to,\u201d Cimarusti says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFilming in L.A. has become sort of a cause du jour, like freeing Tibet or avoiding fur. At this year\u2019s TV upfronts in New York, one presenter after another announced that a new show would be filming in L.A., winning applause each time.<\/p>\n

\n\tProdPro tallied 81 film and TV projects in California in the first quarter of 2026 \u2014 down from the prior year but still a lot more than anywhere else in the U.S. According to FilmLA, the regional permit office, Hollywood remains the world\u2019s largest production hub \u2014 even if it sure doesn\u2019t feel like it to the creative community.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHarrison Ford and Lukita Maxwell in \u201cShrinking<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tStudios will spend what it takes to shoot in Southern California when they\u2019re working with A-list stars who demand top talent and extremely skilled crews. The showbiz farce \u201cThe Studio\u201d was sold to Apple with the understanding that it would only work if it was shot in L.A., says James Weaver, president of Seth Rogen\u2019s Point Grey Pictures, which produces the series with Lionsgate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe show is really about people yelling and screaming at each other in beautiful places,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was an important part of the ethos of the show. Apple knew that when they said they would make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShooting in L.A. means working on a tighter production schedule. But \u201cThe Studio\u201d snagged a $13 million tax credit for Season 2, which eases some of the budget pressure and may help extend its run.<\/p>\n

\n\tShowrunner Lawrence, who is making ABC\u2019s \u201cScrubs\u201d revival for Disney in Vancouver, is also producing four shows with Warner Bros. Television in L.A. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky in that I try to shoot everything in Los Angeles,\u201d Lawrence says. \u201cI just think it\u2019s really important to maintain this place as the hub of the television industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStars like Harrison Ford on \u201cShrinking\u201d or Kathy Bates on \u201cMatlock\u201d can demand that a show be made here. And with state incentives, the math can work. California allots nearly $50 million per season to Lawrence\u2019s shows alone.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, it\u2019s not as though costs are going down. In the current round of union negotiations, the studios are hiking their health contributions considerably, making the U.S. even less competitive with countries that provide national healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s very hard to get around that. Miller of IATSE argues that labor shouldn\u2019t be forced into a global race to the bottom. \u201cWe can\u2019t turn the entertainment industry into a minimum-wage job with no benefits just so we can compete with Bulgaria,\u201d he says. \u201cOur federal government has to acknowledge that and has to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBonann agrees. \u201cIt\u2019s not like our labor here in L.A. is overpaid \u2014 they\u2019re fairly paid,\u201d he says. \u201cIf cost is the only factor, then every single production will eventually leave. You\u2019ll lose something much bigger in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite higher costs,\u00a0Hollywood still makes movies and TV shows, and Detroit still makes cars, trucks and SUVs \u2014 though with fewer people.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s oversold that the auto industry left Michigan,\u201d says James Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Fiscal Policy. \u201cMichigan is the top-producing auto state, and it\u2019s not especially close either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s because Michigan decided to keep the auto industry, providing billions in subsidies over the last 25 years. The federal government has stepped in, too, seeing auto jobs as vital to the U.S. economy. In that sense, Hollywood isn\u2019t becoming Detroit so much as emulating it.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in the late 1980s, \u201cBaywatch\u201d was birthed in part from Bonann\u2019s personal experience working as a Los Angeles County lifeguard. He remains partial to his hometown, but he\u2019s also a businessman. Over the years, he has lensed \u201cBaywatch\u201d-related projects in Hawaii and Georgia, and he considered doing the reboot in Australia or South Africa. Both had the requisite ingredients \u2014 beaches and incentives \u2014 and both are cheaper places to shoot. But in the end he chose L.A.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou have to really want to shoot in L.A.,\u201d he says. \u201cIt costs more money, but you have to find a way to make that work. This show belongs here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Bonann\u2019s meetings with public officials earlier this year, the show has faced no parking and permitting issues. The actors can drive on the beach. Without even asking, the show got a 20% discount on its city parking fees.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just saw the first cut,\u201d he says. \u201cI cannot imagine having produced an episode of TV this good anywhere else in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBaywatch\u201d was a staple of low-budget, first-run syndication in the 1990s, as natural to Los Angeles as David…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":871430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[132223,1582,276,2961,224,5337,58571],"class_list":["post-871429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baywatch","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-shrinking"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116760511029122859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}