Hollywood Spends More Than Half of Its Film Budgets Outside the US, 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…