Los Angeles Filming Dips 3.7% as More Shows Claim California's Tax Credit
Los Angeles filming fell 3.7% in the third quarter of 2026, even as more productions qualified for California's state film tax credit. The figures come from FilmLA, the film office set up by the city and county of Los Angeles, which counts on-location shoots across the region. Variety reported the numbers on October 21.
The credit is a rebate on a share of qualifying spending in California, which can make filming there cheaper. Governor Gavin Newsom led a 2025 increase in the yearly total from $330 million to $750 million. The larger credit took effect on July 1, 2025.
The share of productions receiving it has climbed fast. According to FilmLA, 40.2% of scripted shows filming in Los Angeles last quarter received the credit, nearly double the figure a year earlier. Scripted means series and films built on written scripts, as opposed to reality programmes.
The jump was sharpest in comedy and drama. In the latest quarter, 62% of TV comedies filming in Los Angeles received the credit, up from 19% in 2025. For TV drama, the figure was 49%, up from 21%.
Filming itself moved the other way. A shoot day is one day a crew spends filming. Location shoots in Los Angeles stayed well below the five-year average for the third quarter, and the number of shoot days fell in both the second and third quarters after a strong start to 2026.
Comedy was the clearest bright spot. TV comedy logged 192 shoot days in the latest quarter, up from 57 in the three months before. FilmLA said that was its best quarter since the 2023 strikes, when writers and actors stopped work for months.
Drama went the other way. TV drama shoot days dropped from 732 to 494. Reality TV recorded 630 shoot days, 66% below its five-year average.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the industry was "turning a corner" after the encouraging first quarter. Philip Sokoloski, a vice president at FilmLA, said the organisation was disappointed by the overall fall in production.
Each shoot day stands for a working crew, from camera operators to drivers and caterers, and a production that chose to film in one place rather than another. The tax credit is meant to keep that work in California, and the latest numbers show more productions claiming it while the total number of filming days in the city is still down.
