US Share of Hollywood Film Production Dropped From 74% to 42% Over 25 Years, Union Study Finds

American studios spent 74% of their feature film production budgets inside the United States in 1999. By 2024, that number was 42%, according to a study conducted by EY QUEST and released Monday by a coalition of Hollywood's biggest unions: the Directors Guild of America, IATSE, LiUNA, SAG-AFTRA, the Teamsters, and both branches of the Writers Guild.

Television tells a similar story. The U.S. share of TV production spending fell from 94% to 64% over the same 25-year stretch, a 30-point drop, according to the union coalition's release.

Total studio spending on film production actually rose from $3 billion to $7 billion over the period, and TV spending jumped from $933 million to $8.4 billion, the report found. The problem, as the unions frame it, is that a bigger slice of that growing pie is going overseas.

Where the work went

The hit is worst at the top end. For the 25 most expensive films studios made, the U.S. share of production fell from 74% to 34%, according to the report. Those big-budget movies make up a quarter of all major-studio films but account for half the crew jobs and two-thirds of the spending, meaning the flagship productions are leading the exodus.

Deadline reported that Marvel and Lucasfilm have moved nearly all high-budget production overseas, including for upcoming Avengers films, while Paramount, Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal did the same for recent tentpoles like "Barbie," "Wicked" and "Sonic the Hedgehog." Cast and crew employment tells the same story: the U.S. share of total film cast and crew fell 29 points, from 72% to 43%, and the TV figure dropped 28 points, from 86% to 58%.

The report is careful to note its own limits. It only measures where production went, not why, and it acknowledges that comparing 1999 TV to 2024 streaming-era TV is messy. "The rise of streaming fundamentally altered production scale, budgets, season lengths, and release models, creating discontinuities in what constitutes a comparable television series across periods," the report states, according to the New York Post.

Workers feel it now

The data isn't abstract for people on crews. CNN reported in September that 2026 is on track to be one of the slowest years on record for U.S. production, leaving small businesses and below-the-line workers struggling to find jobs. Sound mixer Steven Morrow, a four-time Oscar nominee whose credits include "La La Land" and "Ford v Ferrari," said the shift has made it "increasingly difficult for our industry to remain competitive in today's global economy," according to motionpictures.org. Two-time Oscar winner Mark Mangini, known for "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Blade Runner 2049," put it more bluntly: "It has been sad to watch a homegrown industry disappear before our eyes as foreign tax credits lure productions to other countries."

The policy fight in Congress

The timing isn't an accident. A bipartisan bill called the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act would create a federal production tax credit, a 20% base rate on cast and crew spending with the potential to rise to 30% through add-ons for independent productions and disaster-area shoots, according to motionpictures.org. A separate study by Olsberg SPI, commissioned by the Motion Picture Association, estimates the incentive could generate $250 billion in additional economic value and support an average of 143,500 additional jobs a year over the next decade if Congress passes it. That's a projection, not a result, and it depends on assumptions baked into the modeling.

The union-backed EY report arrives the same week Paramount Skydance is scheduled to close its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and rebrand as Skydance Corporation, according to the New York Post, though no source ties that merger to the production numbers themselves.

The instinct to counter foreign subsidies with federal tax credits runs headfirst into a basic principle: government shouldn't be picking winners with taxpayer money, and a new federal credit is still a new federal spending program layered on top of state incentives that already exist in places like Georgia and New Mexico. Hollywood's unions and studios have a real interest in this bill passing, and their own commissioned study is not a neutral referee on whether a federal credit is the right fix.

The underlying trend is real and well-documented. Other countries are using tax policy to actively recruit American productions, and the EY numbers show that's working. Whether the answer is a new federal credit, slashing regulatory friction, or just letting the market sort it out is a fair fight for Congress to have. What isn't in dispute is the scoreboard: fewer big American movies are being made in America than at any point in the 25 years EY measured.

The bill has not come up for a floor vote in either chamber as of this writing, and no hearing date has been scheduled.