To Live and Die in LA’s Film Industry

Someone likened it to ‘killing the Golden goose,’ and if there was ever anything golden about Los Angeles, it was the glitter of its legendary film industry.

I mean, the celebrity culture and mystique of the movie industry was, next to palm tree-lined boulevards, the association most often made in the average American’s mind when asked what represented Los Angeles to him.

Marilyn, Grauman’s Chinese Theater…

 

…the big studio lots (Paramount is the only one remaining in Hollywood proper)…

 

…stars dining at area restaurants, shopping in Beverly Hills (they even made movies about doing that)… 

 

… and you could imagine running into someone famous, knocking back a cocktail or two after work in trendy watering holes.

If you thought of television and film, the beating heart of it was Los Angeles.

But much like what the film industry and its ‘stars,’ writers, and producers have done to itself with woke, repetitive, and derivative product releases that do nothing but lecture, diminish, and destroy much-loved franchises for lack of a single, fresh, original, and independent thought… 

Hollywood has forgotten the mission – ENTERTAIN, that’s it..don’t lecture, don’t preach, just entertain as many PAYING customers as you can. If you want to pretend film is still “art” and your art is offensive to a huge part of your potential audience, you’re lost.

— Nathanael Greene (@NathanaelGr1778) March 18, 2026

…the city of Los Angeles has been bleeding the Golden goose dry on the production end.

What a shock that LA has been wrapping the film industry in an ever-tightening noose of regulations, permitting fees, union restrictions, and mandates, right? As if they would always be there, because…well…they always have.

That’s not the case now and hasn’t been for a few years. The city and its progressive leadership are only beginning to wake up.

Cautionary tale for the rest of CA

Don’t kill your Golden Goose

— Moses Kagan (@moseskagan) March 17, 2026

The oleaginous Pollyanna running the state thinks he’s fixed everything again and will no doubt be bragging about a non-existent bump.

That’s weird our governor keeps assuring us the film industry is stronger than ever here https://t.co/i4YEVEp5ic

— nuts (@larsajordan) March 18, 2026

But, as of yet, in an industry struggling with overall production declines, those folks still in Los Angeles have not seen Newsom’s tax breaks materialize, so they cannot yet determine whether to stay or go for the few gigs available.

That all adds up to ever fewer shooting days in the city, and what jobs there are are looking for cheaper, film-friendlier venues. Feature film and TV production in the city are sliding precipitously.

Los Angeles Film and TV Shoot Days Hit New Lows In 2025

After finishing at historically low levels in 2024, production in Los Angeles hit a new nadir last year.

The region recorded just 19,694 shoot days in 2025, the lowest figure observed outside of 2020 when filming was halted amid the pandemic, according to the latest report from film permitting office FilmLA on Wednesday. It’s slightly more than a 16 percent drop-off compared to the previous year as local filming continues to decline since the highs of 2018. L.A. hasn’t seen filming levels increase year-over-year since 2021, though there’s hope that changes with the passage of major alterations to California’s subsidy program for Hollywood.

In a statement, FilmLA spokesperson Philip Sokoloski said the year-end figures are “disappointing,” though “not unexpected.” He urged patience, saying that the office has “consistently projected that the full effect of the expanded Film and Television Tax Credit Program would take time to materialize.”

Since that expansion, the state has tapped 119 productions to receive filming subsidies. Dozens of those titles — many of which will at least partially shoot in Los Angeles, including Heat 2 — haven’t begun filming.

In the three month period from October to December, production in L.A. saw 4,625 shoot days, up nearly six percent from the previous quarter. The year-over-year figures shows an escalating slide in filming levels. Filming for TV shows ended 2025 over 50 percent below the five-year average. Features fared better but not by much, with the category recording a drop-off of more than 31 percent in that same span.

There’s also a question of time, as many productions do not have the luxury to wait for those magic tax credits ‘to materialize.’

Some of those productions aren’t moving very far, but they are leaving regardless.

Runaway production has taken a big bite out of Hollywood lately, but some of that production isn’t running far. After years marked by a pandemic, two industry strikes and rising tax incentives in other states, TV and film shoots in the city of Los Angeles have dropped sharply — yet just over the county line, Simi Valley is booming.

Data provider Luminate’s annual report shows that film and TV shoots in Los Angeles fell 24% in 2025 compared with the previous year. But while L.A. struggled, Simi Valley emerged as a rising new star.

“Filming is alive and well here in Simi Valley,” City Manager Samantha Argabrite said during a visit to Allied Studios, a sprawling facility that is home to acres and acres of backlots and finished stages.

At the beginning of this month, there was a classic exercise in progressive governance, as the LA City Council bestirred itself to act and voted unanimously to ‘greenlight proposals aimed at improving filming conditions‘ in the city.

What did that mean? Absolutely nothing but a chance for a photo-op. If you read the article in the Hollywood Reporter, every single suggestion is countermanded either by a union demanding a seat at the table or a neighborhood activist worried about ‘community involvement,’ etc. It’s a frickin’ circus that the council put a bow on for the cameras and argle-bargled to make it sound as if something was actually done.

It wasn’t, although they did all agree to spend money on a ‘Made in LA‘ branding campaign.

…All eligible councilmembers voted to approve colleague Adrin Nazarian’s seven initial motions to “keep Hollywood home.” Those include measures to speed up soundstage certification and to require city departments to report compliance with Mayor Karen Bass’ 2025 executive order on filming. They also comprise motions to launch an independent audit of L.A.’s permitting system and to usher in free “microshoots” (involving 10 or fewer people).

…Additional motions from Nazarian that were passed on Wednesday will facilitate an agreement with L.A. counties and local cities to coordinate their permit regulations, will require the city’s tourism department to present a “Made in L.A.” branding campaign idea to the Council and will work to unify filming conditions across the city.

…But there were also hints of dissent when it came to the details of the motions. While generally expressing support for the efforts to boost production in the city, several industry union representatives asked in their public comments to be included in discussions around future motions. Thom Davis, president of the California IATSE Council, asked for labor and safety standards to be considered in his public comments.

…Advocates for downtown L.A., including DTLA Alliance president Suzanne Holley and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, expressed concern for how proposed reforms might impact residents and businesses in the neighborhood. “Please don’t cut the community out of this conversation,” Holley said.

…Still, during the press conference that followed the vote, the councilmember spoke in the foreground of a crowd including union leaders, the head of the city’s film office and members of the grassroots local group Stay in L.A. — a show of unity despite the behind-the-scenes debates. The councilmember’s office has stated that his motions are the result of more than three dozen meetings with studios, unions, indie filmmakers and related businesses.

What a zoo, and there shouldn’t be a single surprising thing about any of it, whether it’s trying to get a permit to film a toilet paper commercial or rebuilding your house in Pacific Palisades. Progressives by their very nature are incapable of streamlining any process, however much it might benefit them, or, God forbid, the victim at hand, because of their need to indulge everyone’s sense of self-importance while exercising as much executive power as possible.

Now, I’m not sure where the Grauniad (an old blogger nickname for The Guardian) came up with this headline, because, to my knowledge, not a soul on God’s greening Earth was expecting numbers indicating an Oscar-viewing blowout…

Oscars ratings in US dip to four-year low, defying expectations

…and it wasn’t.

Hopes had been high that the popularity of big hitters Sinners and One Battle After Another would translate into a bigger audience for the Oscars ceremony telecast. Yet numbers hit a four-year-low in the US, where the show reached 17.9 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from last year’s 19.7 million.

Few people I know personally, or whom I read anecdotally, like much of the product or the preachy people starring in and ruining it.

What passes as today’s ‘stars’ is a collection of truly insufferable, arrogant, perpetually offensive, intellectually-challenged dolts.

I didn’t think there was any more toxic for her to get.

WOOF

Was I wrong.

— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) March 15, 2026

This has created a situation for the industry itself where it’s being eaten away at both ends – a rapacious city feasting on the remnants of the golden years of Hollywood and a dwindling audience for product no one wants, peopled by obnoxious virtue-signaling individuals no one can stand.

She was born in 2001. She’s talking like she was born in 1951. There’s a desperate desire from young left wing morons to make themselves trailblazing heroes by blatantly lying about the world around them.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 16, 2026

It might be academic if Gavin Newsom’s tax credits ever materialize. 

There’s also a three-year Screen Actors’ Guild contract in negotiations right now, as well as a Writers’ Guild brouhaha.

The LA City Council will still be soothing frayed nerves, acknowledging the lived experience of all, and herding those cats. 

Everyone will be so wrapped up in their own self-importance and misery, not a soul will notice as the Golden goose gasps its last.

Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!