- The fires in Los Angeles threaten to derail the entertainment industry’s recovery.
- LA’s share of film and television jobs has declined, and some residents are once again considering leaving.
- A producer and director said he felt he could improve his financial situation by leaving LA.
The fires raging in Los Angeles are a new threat to an entertainment industry that has struggled to rebound from slowing studio spending and twin labor strikes.
“Survive until ’25” was the mantra in Hollywood for most of 2024. Now, some in the entertainment industry are wondering if they should stick around.
“If you don’t need to be in LA anymore, the question becomes: Will I stay here?” asked Adam Wood, a producer and director in North Hollywood. He said the shift during COVID to telecommuting had made it easier to build an entertainment career outside of LA. Wood hasn’t had to evacuate yet, but he helped a friend evacuate and is monitoring conditions.
“I can improve my situation financially by not being here,” he said. “LA is the spiritual home of the industry, but at the same time, it’s not loving me.”
Like many in entertainment, Wood works on a freelance basis. While he feels connected to the entertainment mecca, he said he’s also counting the days of work lost to the fire.
Producer and director Adam Wood. Adam Wood
Productions and premieres have largely been halted
The fires, which had killed at least 10 people as of Thursday night, halted production on shows including Amazon’s “Fallout” and CBS Studios’ “NCIS,” while studios from Paramount to Universal canceled premieres.
Stars including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal have lost their homes in the tony Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which is favored for its proximity to the studios. Countless others have lost or fled their homes, with thousands of structures reported destroyed.
FilmLA, the city’s film permit office, issued a statement Thursday warning that permits in or near evacuation zones may be revoked, while new applications to film in or near those areas will be denied.
It previously said the Los Angeles County Fire Department had ordered film permits revoked for the communities of Altadena, La Crescenta, La Canada/Flintridge and Unincorporated Pasadena.
Hollywood was already hurting before the fires
Before the fires, the slowdown in entertainment spending had already hit the industry’s biggest market hard.
Los Angeles has also been hampered by an exodus of manufacturing and workers to other entertainment centers in lower-cost locations such as Atlanta and Miami. Greater Los Angeles’ share of US-made TV and film projects fell from 23% in 2021 to 18% in 2023, according to FilmLA.
LA accounted for 22% of U.S. film and television jobs in August, up from 33% two years earlier, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures by Patrick Adler and Taner Osman of Westwood Economics & Planning Associates.
Despite the downturn, producer Adam Fratto said he felt pretty good about the state of the industry before the fires started.
“I was pitching a few projects and who knows if they’ll sell, but the fact that TV people were open to pitches, that’s good,” he said. “A few days ago, I felt a little optimistic about 2025.”
While it’s still too early to tell how far the devastation may spread, Fratto said he expected the fires to cause some people to reevaluate their commitment to the area and the industry.
“I think there will be people who just decide to take their chips off the table and do something else or move,” he said.
Still, Adler, the economic researcher, said he doubted Los Angeles would lose its position at the top of the entertainment industry.
“In the likes of film, television, content creation and video games, LA has been the place where important decisions are made, where talented people collaborate and where deals are made,” he said. “This has remained true as the city has endured through numerous earthquakes and riots, not to mention periodic industry downturns.”
