GOVERNMENT & POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Production Report - Commercial Shoot Days Down in LA Area for Q2

FilmLA, partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions, issued a quarterly update regarding regional filming activity: 

Overall, on-location production in Greater Los Angeles declined by 6.2 percent to 5,394 Shoot Days (SD) in Q2 (April-June) of 2025 compared to the same period a year ago. 

Commercial production, which receives no form of business incentive to create production jobs in California, declined -15.3 percent last quarter to 692 SD. The Commercials category remains -38.3 percent below its five-year quarterly average – making it the weakest of the three major production categories tracked by FilmLA. 

Commercial spots for companies such as Adidas, Amazon, Geico, McDonald’s, Iron Mountain and Walmart helped by filming locally. Los Angeles also continues to be a popular filming destination for car manufacturers like BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Infiniti, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota.

Click here for FilmLA’s full 2025 Q2 Production Report.

This year, the AICP ramped up advocacy efforts in Sacramento to educate legislators and lobby for the creation of a commercial production incentive program in California. Although an expansion and modification of the existing film and television incentive program was approved earlier this summer, commercials continue to be omitted as noted above by FilmLA. This is partially due to the mechanics of the existing program, which cannot accommodate the commercial production business model. The AICP continues to work with legislators to design an incentive program that can best meet the needs of commercial producers and increase opportunities to shoot in California. 

For questions about the AICP’s legislative advocacy efforts, contact David Michael González, Director of Labor & Government Relations, davidg@aicp.com.