LA On-Location Filming Drops 12% From Last Year Due to Declining Content Spend, ‘Post-Strike Paralysis’

In its latest quarterly study, FilmLA reports that on-location shooting in Los Angeles in the second quarter of 2024 dropped 12% compared to last year, even with the start of the Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 taken into account.

This is in spite of the return of scripted production work that was shut down during last year’s labor stoppage, with the year-over-year drop attributed primarily to a 56% drop in shoot days for reality TV shows.

“Generally speaking, unscripted television is a location-heavy format that generates significant permit volume,” said FilmLA’s VP of Integrated Communications Philip Sokoloski. “The employment impact of reality production is lower than it is for scripted TV, and projects are not incentive-eligible through the State of California. It remains an important part of LA’s production economy.”

Among scripted television, FilmLA recorded 714 shoot days for dramas, 171 days for comedy and 17 for pilots. While these were all rebounds compared to last year , when shoots for all these productions ceased at the start of May, shoot day counts for all three of these categories are below the five-year average, with dramas down 19.2%, comedies down 44.4% and pilots down a staggering 72.5%.

Feature films and commercials saw smaller year-over-year dips, with features falling 3.3% to 704 shoot days and commercials sliding 5.1% to 817 days. But counts in these categories are also substantially below the five-year average, with films down 23.8% and commercials down 36.1%.

Overall, 5,749 shoot days were logged in Q2 of 2024, 33.4% below the five-year average. FilmLA attributes this to the industry-wide contraction in production spending that was forecast even before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, as studios are cutting down on the number of films and TV shows they greenlight in an effort to make their streaming services profitable.

This has led to significant financial strain for entertainment workers whose finances were already depleted by the 191-day work stoppage last year. Some crew workers and writers have told TheWrap in recent months that they have not seen any entertainment-related employment since prior to the start of the strikes.

“Streaming content spend is down, and Los Angeles and its many global competitors are still reeling from post-strike paralysis,” added Sokoloski. “Workers in this industry, wherever they are based, are seeing fewer opportunities amid ongoing labor negotiations in an era of content contraction.”

Another believed factor behind the drop in production is the ongoing labor negotiations being held by the studios and their labor representatives, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The AMPTP recently reached a tentative agreement with IATSE that is currently facing a ratification vote, with results to be announced on Thursday.

Meanwhile, negotiations continue with Hollywood Teamsters and the Basic Crafts on their contract ahead of a July 31 deadline, with the last scheduled day of talks set for Friday. While Teamsters has remained open to further negotiation days this month, it has told the AMPTP that it will not agree to an extension of the end-of-month deadline, when its current contract expires.

While averting a strike may lead the studios to increase their production plans, FilmLA says it expects any such increase to be “cautious and measured, and the gains will be globally distributed.”

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