Los Angeles’s entertainment industry is going through a tough decade. Labor strikes in 2023 and wildfires in 2025 have intensified fears that film and series production is migrating abroad, threatening Hollywood’s technical workers.
After the fires, filmmaker Sarah Smith and screenwriter Alexandra Pechman created a WhatsApp group with showrunners and industry workers, drafted a petition, and launched the #StayInLA campaign. The movement, which started as an emergency effort, became a political force with over 20,000 signatures and support from famous actors and filmmakers.
The American film industry concentrated in Los Angeles in the 1910s, attracted by the sun, varied landscapes, cheap land, and distance from Thomas Edison’s patents. By the 1920s, Hollywood was already the global center of cinema, with studios and workers in a self-sustaining ecosystem.
For decades, most American films were produced on Los Angeles backlots, where studios offered ready-made sets and skilled crews. This model kept costs low and allowed directors to make four to six films a year, like a Henry Ford assembly line.
Two factors broke this dominance. First, the blockbuster: in the 1970s, hits like ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Jaws’ showed the potential of event cinema. In the 1980s, corporate studios like Paramount-Gulf-Western manufactured blockbusters with rising budgets, filmed on exotic locations.
Second, the rise of IP and tax credits: in the 2000s and 2010s, franchises like the Marvel Universe required enormous investments, leading studios to seek incentives in cities like Vancouver and Atlanta. The result was a slow migration out of California.
Where did the films go? London, with studios like Pinewood, and cities like Atlanta and Vancouver, with generous tax credits, became the new hubs. For a blockbuster, incentives represent tens of millions of dollars, freeing up funds for famous actors and special effects.
The bigger the budget, the higher the chance the film is shot outside the US. This created a chasm between where stories are set and where they are filmed. Toronto stands in for New York; Prague for any European city.
Critics complain, especially about Netflix rom-coms shot in New Orleans but set in New York. The question is: does the audience notice? As a purist, I believe films should be shot where they are set, but most viewers don’t notice or don’t care.
In my summer internship at Conan O’Brien’s show, I discovered that the Warner Bros. backlot was empty. I spent time on the ‘Friends’ set and the streets of ‘Gilmore Girls’, but the impression was that Hollywood had become an office where decisions are made about how a film is made, without it being made there.
This introduced me to the ‘cost disease’: an economic phenomenon where labor-intensive industries, like healthcare, education, and cinema, become increasingly expensive. On Broadway, the cost of living in New York rises, wages rise, but productivity is fixed.
The migration of production is a rational response to these costs. But it leaves a void in Los Angeles and a question: is the authenticity of the location worth the price? For studios, the answer is clear: no, when the audience doesn’t notice the difference.
Source: statsignificant.com