Hollywood offshoring: A look at who's winning the global production race

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At the Burbank City Hall chambers packed with Hollywood union workers, community advocates and journalists, Sen.Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) laid out the cost of losing local film and TV production:More than 42,000 jobs lost.

Livelihoods destroyed.Future opportunities lost.Increasingly, Schiff said, those jobs are being “lured abroad” by “foreign governments that have invested aggressively in building their own film industries.”To underscore the point, Schiff cited some sobering data: Last year, 45% of all U.S.

films and scripted television shows were shot internationally, up from about 33% in 2022.California and other states have bolstered their production incentive programs, but it’s not enough, Schiff said.

The former federal prosecutor was making the case for why a federal tax credit is needed to level the playing field.“State programs cannot simply substitute for the kind of global, federal and competitive tax incentives that are needed to bring production back to American soil and stop its offshoring,” he said last month at the event.“The urgency could not be greater.” Business Owners of independent studios across Los Angeles are struggling in the face of a historic downturn in production activity.Many industry leaders agree.

In a recent survey conducted by data firm ProdPro, studio executives “overwhelmingly” said a U.S.federal incentive program that could be added on top of state tax credits would “materially increase domestic production activity.”“Theoretically, it just makes a lot of sense,” said Joe Chianese, senior vice president at Entertainment Partners, which tracks production incentives worldwide.

“If it were to happen, it would definitely help not just California, but U.S.production in general.”A federal credit, however, would require bipartisan congressional support — something that’s in short supply these days in Washington,...