New Jersey, Illinois See Major Gains In Film and TV Production As California Loses Ground

When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in to law a doubling of California’s tax incentives for film and TV projects from $330 million to $750 million annually in July, the move sent a signal that the state was finally taking runaway production seriously. Yet that piece of legislation may just be the first step needed to keep more of Hollywood in Hollywood, if the latest U.S. production figures are any indication.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, California saw a 20 percent decrease in movie and TV projects filming in the state year-over-year, with production spend from those projects similarly down 22 percent, according to the Q4 report from industry tracker ProdPro released Jan. 16. Total production spend in the quarter amounted to $1.35 billion.

The Golden State, where all the major studios still have HQ lots, still claims bragging rights as the top destination overall for film and TV shoots, but double digit declines even after the state’s latest incentives took effect are another cautionary sign. One slight silver lining: In Los Angeles, overall filming days in the fourth quarter were up about 6 percent from the prior quarter, permitting office FilmLA disclosed on Jan. 15. But L.A. shoot days overall throughout the year were down 16 percent from 2024.

The message from FilmLA vp Philip Sokoloski: hold tight, “although our overall numbers remain low, there are dozens of incentivized projects that have yet to begin filming,” the exec said in unveiling the latest figures. To that point, the California Film Commission revealed a slate of 28 titles on Dec. 17, including projects from NBCUniversal, Sony, Amazon, 20th Century and Apple, to receive tax credits to shoot in California, with the state forecasting $562 million in total economic activity from the shoots.

While California is losing ground, its biggest rival, New York, saw a 31 percent increase in filming count and 23 percent increase in production spend year-over-year. With $1.07 billion in total spend in Q4, New York is not too far off from eclipsing California’s total production spending.

Two other states are emerging as notable production players as projects increasingly seek incentives outside of California. One of the major beneficiaries has been New Jersey, where filming count in the fourth quarter was up 75 percent year-over-year and production spend grew 12 percent, per ProdPro. (New Jersey’s annual tax incentive for film and TV projects is $430 million, lower than New York at $800 million and California’s bulked up $750 million program.)

Notably, that healthy growth for the Garden State arrives before key studio lots are completed in the state. Netflix is investing $1 billion to build its East coast base with 12 soundstages at the former site of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The David Ellison-owned Paramount inked a 10-year lease in October to occupy 85,000 square feet of the in-construction 1888 Studios in Bayonne, while Lionsgate is set as the anchor tenant of Great Point Studios in Newark.

Meanwhile Illinois, home to Dick Wolf procedurals on NBC (Chicago Fire, P.D. and Med) along with FX’s The Bear, saw film count in the fourth quarter increase 70 percent year-over-year while production spend increased 46 percent. Prior indicators — namely major year-over-year growth in background actors’ jobs booked, per one payroll firm’s estimate — had suggested that Illinois was poised to be a bigger production hub, and in the latest quarter it appears to be closing the gap with a more established state, Georgia, that saw year-over-year declines in projects shooting and in spend.

Overall production in the U.S. fell across all states by 4 percent in the fourth quarter and production spend overall fell 8 percent to $4.2 billion, a sign that film and TV shoots are increasingly a global hunt by producers to seek out the best incentives and locations. Both the United Kingdom and Canada, per ProdPro’s tally, saw double digit filming count and production spend growth in the fourth quarter of 2025.