Hollywood Spends More Than Half of Its Film Budgets Outside the U.S., Union Study Shows

Major Hollywood studios have gone from spending 72% of its production budgets within the United States at the end of the 20th century to spending more than half of that budget outside of the country, according to a new study commissioned by the entertainment industry’s major unions.

The study conducted by Ernst Young surveyed film and television production spending from major American studios from 1999 to 2024 for movies with budgets of at least $5 million and TV shows with budgets of at least $1 million per episode.

For film productions, the study found that over the quarter-century span surveyed:

• — The share of production spending on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 74% to 42% (a 32 percentage-point decrease).
• — The share of films by major U.S. studios on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 66% to 54%.
• — The share of cast and crew working on movies filmed partially or primarily in the U.S. declined from 72% to 43%.
• — The share of production spending in the U.S. among the 25 highest-budget films by major U.S. studios declined by 40%.

On the TV side, the study found:

• — The share…