L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie

The entertainment industry is in a downward spiral that began when the dual strikes by actors and writers ended in 2023. Work is evaporating, businesses are closing, longtime residents are leaving, and the heart of L.A.’s creative middle class is hanging on by a thread.

At the end of 2024, some 100,000 people were employed in the motion picture industry in Los Angeles County, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Two years earlier, there were 142,000. As a result, some entertainment workers are leaving the place. The county’s population has dropped by nearly a quarter million since 2020.

The primary reason is that Hollywood is making less stuff. The film business has yet to rebound from the shutdown of theaters during the pandemic. TV production was booming in the 2010s and early 2020s as companies tried to jump-start streaming services, but in 2022, investors saw streaming growth was slowing and decided what actually matters is profitability. Entertainment companies, which plan productions many months in advance, cut spending dramatically when the strikes ended the following year.

Nearly 30% fewer movies and TV shows with budgets of at least $40 million began shooting in the U.S. in 2024 than in 2022, according to data firm ProdPro. The first three-quarters of this year were down another 13%.

Hollywood has endured downturns before, but rarely this sudden and severe. And a full recovery might never happen if generative artificial intelligence makes animation and visual-effects jobs obsolete, as many workers fear. Some industry analysts believe consumers might be pivoting permanently from professionally made content to the endless buffet of YouTube and social media.