At a difficult time for Hollywood’s home state, there is at least some positive news to enjoy. FilmLA finally saw an uptick in shoot days for the Greater Los Angeles area at the end of 2024. Our local entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A., shares the full story.
Ending 2024 on a High Note
While 2024 overall still saw a 5.6% decline in shoot days, that trend showed a significant reversal as we headed into the last quarter of 2024. Shoot days ticked up by 6.2%, finally ending a consecutive chain of 11 quarters where declines were noted.
Even more encouragingly, this increase was seen across all the production types that FilmLA tracks, other than Reality TV. It’s not the most wonderful news— this was still LA’s second-least productive year, second only to 2020— but it is an overall net positive, and that’s still worth a little celebration.
Bright Spots
Nor was it the only bright spot in FilmLA’s latest report. The Feature Films production category saw a massive boost (82.4%) in that final quarter. Most analysts are laying this gain at the door of indie film producers. In fact, this same category saw an 18.8% improvement across the full year. Likewise, scripted TV dramas saw a strong rise, doubling its annual output from 2023 figures.
While 2025 will be another of those “unusual years” that seem to be the norm in the 2020s, with the impact of recent fire events inevitably taking their own toll on the area, there is some good news ahead for the state, at least. Governor Newsom’s planned expansion of the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program from its current $330M to $750M is still set to go ahead, which will hopefully incentivize productions to return to LA for their shooting needs as well. Right now, California needs all the positive news it can generate, and at least things are looking up for the industry.
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