Hollywood Exodus Get Report

Practically since the moment California’s expanded film and TV tax credit was signed into law in June 2025, the entertainment industry has been holding its proverbial breath to see when, or if, production in Los Angeles would begin to recover. 

That recovery now seems to be in progress, with a recent report by the city’s film office, FilmLA, showing overall shoot days in L.A. County ticked upward nearly 11% from the previous quarter in Q1 2026. Commentators and politicians were quick to announce that Hollywood’s longtime home is “turning a corner” after years of struggle.

The reality, however, is more nuanced than this rhetoric suggests. While the tax credit expansion has indeed sparked a surge in production activity in California — mostly among independent films — a real recovery remains a ways off. And in fact, there may be no going back for an industry that has been profoundly reshaped by ongoing contraction, corporate consolidation and an increasingly globalized content landscape.

The Luminate Intelligence report Hollywood Exodus 2026 digs deep into the data that underlies this landscape, from the intensifying production incentive arms race to studios’ shifting spending patterns in key hubs and beyond. 

What quickly becomes clear when examining this data is that L.A. is not alone in undergoing a difficult production downturn. Indeed, the real challenge facing Hollywood’s beleaguered crews is not just that less content is being made in L.A. since peak TV but that less traditional entertainment content is being made overall.

That said, there are still opportunities in film and TV production for those who can seize upon them. This report presents both an unsparing look at the entertainment industry’s ills and a forward-looking, data-driven perspective on its potential paths to the future.