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SpanishFilm Shoots Are Down in U.S. This Year, Except In New Jersey
Erik Hayden, The Hollywood Reporter | April 15, 2026
Across the United States, the volume of movie and TV on-location production filming slowed in the first quarter of this year, with one state marking an exception: New Jersey.
The Garden State made gains in both filming count (up 45 percent year-over-year) as well as production spend (up 37 percent), while other major markets either saw declines or were relatively flat, according to production intelligence platform ProdPro’s quarterly report released on Tuesday.
The tracking firm attributes New Jersey’s gains to a “surge in episodic activity” as more series shoot in the state that’s been deemed “Hollywood East” due to its mix of tax incentives, studio infrastructure and available crew. And that’s before a trio of major studio complexes are even completed. Netflix is investing $1 billion to build its East coast base with 12 soundstages at the former site of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Paramount inked a 10-year lease in October to occupy 85,000 square feet of the in-construction 1888 Studios in Bayonne, while Lionsgate is set as the anchor tenant of Great Point Studios in Newark.
Notable features that have filmed in the state include Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi feature Disclosure Day, which is being positioned as a major summer tentpole from Universal when it hits theaters in June. And Amazon MGM’s young Sylvester Stallone biopic I Play Rocky, which will open 50 years after the boxing film originally hit theaters in November, filmed in the state. (“In a normal world we would have shot that movie in New York and Pennsylvania,” the film’s producer, Toby Emmerich, recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “We ended up shooting it in New Jersey because they had the best tax deal.”)
Read the full story on The Hollywood Reporter here.