Hello Sunday Wrap readers,

Hollywood — and, in fact, the entire United States — has been battling an exodus of production over the last few years that has been devastating. But new data shows that finally, in the first quarter of 2026, we stemmed the bleeding. Shoot days for the first quarter of the year in Los Angeles reached 5,121, a 10.7% increase from the last quarter of 2025, while shoot days for the U.K. were down.

How did this happen, and what can be done to continue to increase production in the U.S. going forward? Jeremy Fuster breaks it all down — with charts! — in this week's must-read story.

Adam Chitwood
Executive Editor
adam.chitwood@thewrap.com

US Finally Stems the Bleeding in Film Production — but Will It Last?

After four years of decline in global production share, spending on film and TV shoots in the U.S. has stabilized in the first quarter of 2026

By Jeremy Fuster

A year ago, California was facing an existential crisis over the future of one of its most defining industries, losing film productions left and right to other states and, more so, to other countries. 

In response, state lawmakers approved a dramatic expansion of California’s production tax incentive program that has been one of the biggest changes to the global race for film shoots over the past 12 months and has allowed Hollywood’s backyard to stem the tide. As a result of that and other updates in major American production hubs, data from the first quarter of 2026 shows signs that the United States is halting the exodus of film and television productions to other countries.

But it is doing so as greenlights on high-budget productions continue to decrease worldwide, leaving dozens of major production hubs fighting for slices of a smaller pie. 

First, the good news...

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