FilmLA, a not-for-profit organization, and the official film office of the city and county of Los Angeles, has just released some figures for the production output in Hollywood.
Reviewing the 2021 findings in 2023, study participants have reported to FilmLA that their business environment continues to evolve. Studio occupancy levels, while still high, will likely see a drop from prior years when FilmLA issues its next planned update (featuring 2022 data) this fall.
Meanwhile, “Over the last year,” reported the organization, “Los Angeles County had four studio openings — all adaptive reuse projects — and two studio expansions, including Universal’s recently completed addition of eight stages.”
“At this time, Los Angeles County has 17 studio projects in various stages of development [and they] comprise 155 planned stages and approximately three million square feet [279,000 sq. meters] of space. This includes expansions at two major studios — Warner Bros. and Fox — and two independent legacy facilities — Radford Studio Center and Television City. Three facilities in the San Fernando Valley, including Sunset Glenoaks in Sun Valley, Reframe Studios in Atwater Village, and East End Capital’s studio in Glendale, are currently under construction and set to open later in 2023.”
“On a global scale, Los Angeles remains the world leader in terms of overall stage space (6.2 million square feet [575,000 sq. meters]), but new stage development is an ongoing trend. The U.K., for example, is catching up with Los Angeles with an estimated 5.4 million square feet [502,000 sq. meters] of dedicated stage space. Just three years ago, the U.K. had only 3.5 million square feet [325,000 sq. feet], representing an increase of nearly two million square feet [186,000 sq. meters] over that period. Today Ontario [Canada] sits in third place with 3.8 million feet [353,000 sq. feet] of dedicated stage space, followed by Georgia with 3.0 million [279.000 sq. feet], New York with 2.8 million [260,000 sq. meters] and British Columbia [Canada] with 2.5 million [232,000 sq. meters].”
“All of these competitive jurisdictions have plans to expand existing infrastructure by several million square feet. This could enhance their attractiveness to film producers, especially for jurisdictions that offer generous tax incentives and other perks.”
“Despite high occupancy levels over the past few years, the number of projects shot on participant stages declined by -19.3 percent between 2018 and 2021. Study participants and FilmLA Research attribute this to several factors including the COVID-19 Delta variant, which temporarily shuttered film and television production during the first quarter of 2021. Further, many television productions held their space between seasons or under long-term lease agreements, in addition to taking over more stages per project for production. This translated into less stage availability and subsequently fewer projects actively shot on stages.”
“Likewise, Shoot Days (SD) on participant stages declined by -18.5 percent from 14,491 SD to 11,808 SD between 2018 and 2021. Television production accounted for an estimated 60 percent of total stage activity, down from 72 percent in 2020. Looking more closely at the number of television series by type of production, this year’s study found that roughly 48 percent of the series that shot on stages in 2021 were streaming series, compared to 42 percent in 2020. The percentage of broadcast series fell to 38 percent, compared to 43 percent the year prior.”
“The number of projects and Shoot Days on participant stages were down in 2021, but the number of backlot Shoot Days increased by 13.5 percent. Shoot Days for one-hour series increased by over 400 percent between 2018 and 2021, feature film days were up by 112.5 percent, and half-hour series by 14.5 percent. Collectively, these three categories accounted for 85 percent of all backlot filming, likely due to COVID-19 safety precautions and desire to shoot in a controlled environment.”
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