U.S. film and TV production down 40% from peak TV levels, report says

Makeup artist Rakhil Shamailova, right, applies makeup to Samyra James Amos behind the scenes of the TV series “Pose.” The film and TV production drought plaguing the U.S. entertainment industry appears to be “here to stay,” according to a sobering new report by ProdPro. Though domestic film and TV shoots were up by 30% in the second quarter compared to 2023, the year-ago numbers are skewed by a production shutdown caused by the Hollywood writers’ strike, which began in May and concluded in September of last year. ProdPro also tracked studios’ spending habits, noting that they committed in the second quarter of 2024 to investing a total $11.3 billion on film and TV productions — a 39% increase from the same period in 2023, but still lagging 20% behind 2022. Films and TV series that have launched production in the second quarter of 2024 include Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling and shooting in London; director Ryan Coogler’s “Grilled Cheese,” starring Michael B. Jordan and filming in New Orleans; Amazon MGM’s “Mercy,” starring Chris Pratt at Culver Studios in Los Angeles; HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spin-off “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in Belfast; and Amazon Prime Video’s “Blade Runner 2099,” starring Michelle Yeoh and shooting in Eastern Europe.