California Film and Television Tax Credit Rises to $750 Million as 16 New TV Projects Bring an Expected $1.1 Billion in Spending
On July 2, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in Burbank, a city in Los Angeles County, California, that the annual funding of California's Film and Television Tax Credit Program would more than double, from $330 million to $750 million. Sixteen new television projects were awarded through the program the same day, together expected to bring in $1.1 billion in total spending and nearly 6,700 cast and crew jobs across the state.
The 16 projects, approved across the program's last three television application windows, include nine renewals, two pilots, four new shows and one relocating show. Altogether they are expected to hire 6,664 cast and crew members, as well as 59,000 background performers measured in days worked, across 1,308 total California filming days. The returning series include HBO Max's “The Pitt,” Hulu's “Paradise” and CBS's “NCIS: Origins,” and the relocating series is Prime Video's “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
Newsom said California is where filmed entertainment was born and that the expansion makes sure it stays there, investing not just in productions and soundstages but in middle-class careers, small businesses and the communities that power the industry. Dee Dee Myers, the governor's senior advisor and director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, called the expansion a play for California's long game. California Film Commission Director Colleen Bell said the program is about sustaining careers and building opportunity, not just keeping cameras rolling.
Since the tax credit began in 2009, the governor's office said, it has awarded nearly 850 projects, generating over $27 billion in economic activity and supporting more than 209,000 jobs with health and pension benefits; in past years each dollar of credit awarded has returned about $24.40 in economic output. The office said the program is oversubscribed year after year, and that in recent years an estimated 69 percent of rejected projects went on to film out of state.
The expansion was delivered by the state budget bill signed the previous week. For the first time since the program began in 2009, the credits are refundable for all projects, beginning with Program 4.0, which officially commenced on July 1. The California Film Commission's upcoming application windows are July 7 to 9, 2025 for television and August 25 to 27, 2025 for film. The governor was also expected to sign additional legislation to modernize the program.
(Source: Office of the Governor of California)
Source: Office of the Governor of California
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于加州洛杉矶县 Burbank 市的华纳兄弟制片厂大门与水塔，州长当天在此地一带宣布抵免扩额。Chris Yarzab 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The gate and water tower of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California, near where the governor marked the expansion that day. Photo by Chris Yarzab, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
