Los Angeles entertainment real estate is staging a comeback, but not without a few empty seats.
A new FilmLA report shows demand for soundstage space is stabilizing, even as properties open across Los Angeles without tenants. A fresh round of California tax credits could help further buoy demand, with the state awarding incentives to 16 television projects ranging from established scripted hits like "The Pitt" and "I Love LA" to previously excluded categories like competition shows and cartoons. Those 16 shows are expected to generate $871 million in local spending.
It's a pivotal moment for Los Angeles’ entertainment real estate market, where billions of dollars' worth of new studio space is colliding with uneven production demand and intensifying global competition.
Los Angeles remains the global leader in soundstage inventory with roughly 8.3 million square feet. FilmLA's latest report tracks the county's 17 biggest and most prominent studios, totaling some 7 million square feet of soundstage space.
Those studios posted average occupancy rates of 62% in the first half of last year, down slightly from 63% in the first half of 2024. It marks a plateau of sorts, as 2024's figure was a sharp fall from the 90% rate seen in 2022, and the 96% rate in 2016.
“With studio occupancy levels holding steady, this report demonstrates the resiliency of the Los Angeles production environment,” said a statement from FilmLA spokesperson Philip Sokoloski. “Many positive, pro-filming policy developments have been enacted at the state and local level over the past nine months, and more are on the way.”
Production volume ticked up modestly in the first half of 2024 — the most recent activity benchmark — with total projects rising 5% to 1,287. But total shoot days fell 8% over the same period, dragged down by a 23% drop in scripted television activity.
Studio expansion
New soundstages are opening across Los Angeles, with East End Studios launching five soundstages downtown, Cinespace bringing six to suburban Woodland Hills and Echelon Studios set to add five this year.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery recently took the wraps off its million-square-foot Ranch Lot including 16 certified soundstages along with production offices and support space. The campus, less than a mile from the company’s main lot, is designed to consolidate filming activity for productions tied to Warner Bros. Discovery.
The expansion pushes Warner Bros. into the upper tier of stage operators in Los Angeles, with roughly 50 stages across its combined portfolio.
It comes as Warner Bros. Discovery prepares to be acquired by Paramount Skydance, adding another layer of uncertainty — and potential consolidation — to Hollywood’s already shifting production landscape.
It also highlights a growing divide in the market, where owner-users and vertically integrated studios are better positioned to keep stages full than independent landlords reliant on third-party tenants.
"If your show is airing on their network they will want you to use their soundstages," Carl Muhlstein, principal at Burbank, California-based Muhlstein CRE and a longtime Los Angeles broker, told CoStar News.
Incentives drive return
State officials are betting that a new slate of productions will translate directly into signed leases across Los Angeles soundstages.
The latest round of tax credits will support about 4,500 cast and crew members and generate more than 1,200 filming days statewide.
Several of the 16 awarded shows are already tied to major studio campuses, with "The Pitt" filming on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and employing more than 300 cast and crew on a daily basis.
Other projects approved under the state’s Soundstage Tax Credit Program, including scripted television shows "How to Survive Without Me" and the second season of "I Love LA," are expected to shoot on certified stages that qualify for incentives tied to newly built or upgraded facilities at Universal City Studios, the Paramount Pictures studio in Hollywood and The Ranch at Warner Bros. in Burbank.
For landlords, the key detail is where these productions land, as many shows are increasingly clustering on large, full-service campuses that offer adjacent offices, mill space and production support rather than leasing standalone stages, experts say.
That dynamic is reinforcing a bifurcated market: Newer studio campuses and legacy lots tied to major content companies are capturing the bulk of leasing activity, while independent facilities compete more heavily on price to attract smaller or short-term productions.