Detroit watched its auto industry bleed jobs for decades while politicians promised it would turn around.
Hollywood insiders are now warning the same thing is happening to their industry – and they're pointing at one Democrat.
What just happened in California explains exactly how an industry disappears.
Hollywood Jobs Collapsed 42000 in Two Years Under Gavin Newsom
Los Angeles shoot days collapsed from 36,792 in 2022 to just 19,694 in 2025 – a drop of nearly half in three years.
L.A. County motion picture jobs fell from roughly 142,000 in 2022 to around 100,000 by late 2024.
That's 42,000 people who used to have careers.
California now ranks sixth in the world for filming – behind Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, central Europe, and Australia.
Scoring stage bookings – the work that happens after cameras stop rolling – fell to 11 days in 2025, compared to 127 in 2022.
Hollywood insiders fret that the movie business could go the way of the auto industry in Detroit.
David Spade said on a recent podcast: "The Hollywood industry is dying."
His co-host Dana Carvey agreed the studio system was dying and said someone needs to do something.
That someone – the governor who ran California since 2019 – is Gavin Newsom.
California Film Production Exodus Began With This Regulation Disaster
The Baywatch remake story is California in miniature.
Newsom bragged the show was back "where it belongs" – his $21 million tax credit made it happen.
Then county officials told the Baywatch producers they couldn't park trucks overnight on the beach, couldn't light fires, and couldn't drive on the sand.
A lifeguard show – set on a Los Angeles beach – was nearly killed by Los Angeles regulations.
Co-creator Greg Bonann had to sit down with city officials and ask, bluntly, whether they wanted the show there or not.
The city handed the production a 20% parking fee discount – nobody even asked for it.
That's what passes for streamlined government in Gavin Newsom's California.
Meanwhile, Little House on the Prairie – originally shot in Simi Valley – filmed its Netflix reboot in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Rockford Files reboot, set in Los Angeles, is filming outside Atlanta.
The Scrubs reboot – a show defined by its San Fernando Valley hospital location – is being made in British Columbia.
"It is an absolute creative bummer to me that I'm shooting that show in Vancouver," creator Bill Lawrence told Variety.
Trump Called It Stolen While Newsom Collected Tax Credit Applause
President Trump recognized the crisis last year and threatened 100% tariffs on foreign-made films.
His Truth Social post named it directly: "Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries."
It was the first time anyone in Washington admitted the problem existed.
Sen. Adam Schiff – not exactly a Trump ally – is now circulating a federal tax credit bill to counter subsidies from the U.K., Canada, and 79 other countries.
The U.K. alone spent $2.2 billion on film and TV subsidies in 2024 – stacking national credits on top of local rebates.
California capped its program at $330 million for years while the rest of the world built up rival infrastructure.
Newsom finally doubled it to $750 million in 2025 – years after the bleeding started.
"California went into this knife fight without a weapon," said Xavier Becerra, Newsom's likely replacement as governor, "and now folks are bringing guns."
That's Newsom's own party – his own political heir – admitting the governor failed.
Film Industry Job Losses Are Shutting Down Los Angeles Businesses
Corri Levelle, CEO of Sandy Rose Floral in North Hollywood – a company that supplies flowers to film sets – says revenue is down 50%.
Restaurants that fed film crews are shuttering across West Hollywood.
Mike Miller of IATSE – the stagehands and crew union – put it directly: "We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen."
Newsom wasn't watching.
He was building his 2028 presidential campaign.
The workers who spent their careers building the greatest entertainment industry in human history didn't make the political decisions that drove production overseas.
They didn't vote to turn the awards circuit into a left-wing political rally that told half the country it wasn't welcome.
They showed up, did the work, and watched their industry die while the man responsible bragged about Baywatch coming home.
Sources:
- Gene Maddaus, "Hollywood's Mass Exodus: Why Film and TV Production Is Fleeing L.A.," Variety, June 16, 2026.
- Washington Times Editorial, "Hollywood Employment Drops 30% as Productions Leave California," The Washington Times, April 2, 2026.
- "David Spade Blames Karen Bass and Newsom for Hollywood's Ongoing Decline," Fox News, March 21, 2026.
- "Unions and Affordability Are Killing Hollywood in California," Washington Examiner, June 17, 2026.
- "Trump Tries to Save Hollywood with 100% Tariff on Foreign-Produced Films," Fox News, September 30, 2025.
