Motion Picture,TV & Video Production NAICS 512110

Jan 16, 2026 - Battle For Warner Brothers Discovery may Impact Movie Production

• The outlook for theatrical movies is dimming regardless of who ends up owning the film studio division of the Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) media conglomerate, according to The Wall Street Journal. WBD's board has unanimously approved an $82.7 billion deal to be acquired by Netflix. The deal would result in Warner Brothers film and TV studios and HBO Max being acquired by Netflix, and Discovery Global properties CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery Channel remaining independent. Paramount Skydance has launched a $108.4 billion hostile all-cash bid to acquire the entire company. Warner has historically been one of Hollywood’s largest producers of theatrical films, averaging about 22 releases annually in the pre-Covid years of 2015 to 2019, according to Comscore. Warner’s future will ultimately be in the hands of either a streaming giant with a longstanding distaste for movie theaters or a rival studio that will carry a very high debt load and therefore a need to sharply cut costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• On-location film and TV production in Los Angeles decreased 13.2% year over year in the third quarter of 2025, according to FilmLA, the city and county’s film permitting office. The decrease was largely driven by a significant drop in reality TV production after several high-profile series wrapped up. The result continues a multi-year trend of declining local production. Feature films increased 9.7% with 522 total shoot days. Television, the region's main production driver, was down 20.7% to 1,441 shoot days.

• New Jersey is an increasingly important site for new film and TV production, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The state’s tax-credit program is among the most generous in the country and minimizing red tape has been a major sales pitch, the Reporter notes. “New Jersey offers the best of both worlds: proximity to New York without the complexity, and a state government that’s deeply invested in growing the industry the right way,” Gannon Murphy, co-founder and president of the state’s film-industry advocacy group Screen Alliance New Jersey, told the Reporter.
• Motion picture, TV, and video production industry employment has recovered from a steep pandemic-related drop in 2020 and but remailed below pre-pandemic levels in late 2025 while average wages for nonsupervisory employees have decreased from pandemic-driven highs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Motion picture, TV and video production industry sales are forecast to grow at a 2.75% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.