Backed by a partnership between Belfast Harbour, Ulster University, and NI Screen, the $91 million (£72 million) facility boasts more than 75,000 square feet of production space, including cutting-edge LED volume stages, motion capture zones, and CGI-integrated workflows that promise to make “the impossible possible.” About a third of the funding comes from the Belfast Region City Deal, underscoring the government’s bet on film and high-tech content as a growth engine.

Set beside Belfast Harbour Studios—home to previous shoots like The School for Good and Evil (Netflix) and HBO’s Game of Thrones—Studio Ulster positions Northern Ireland to court a new generation of high-end productions. Among the first to book the space is a BBC series produced by Stellify Media that will re-create the sinking of the Titanic in real time using advanced virtual tools and first-person survivor accounts.

“This facility allows us to create Morocco at magic hour and shoot in that light for 12 hours straight—without ever leaving Belfast,” said Professor Declan Keeney, who leads Ulster University’s team managing the project. “We’re now in a position to greenlight productions that wouldn’t have been logistically or financially possible here just a few years ago.”

Virtual production—pioneered by The Mandalorian and now spreading rapidly across Europe and North America—offers producers a way to reduce location costs, condense schedules, and experiment creatively. The new facility’s goal is twofold: attract major tentpole projects and build a workforce pipeline of Northern Irish students trained in emerging on-set technologies like Unreal Engine and volumetric capture.

Studio Ulster also arrives at a pivotal moment for the global industry, as studios and streamers seek cost-effective ways to produce premium content in the face of economic pressures. As soundstage utilization in traditional hubs like Los Angeles has fallen—63% in 2024, down from 95% in 2018—regions like Belfast are seizing the moment to scale up.

Northern Ireland, already a proven backdrop for epic storytelling, is now banking on advanced infrastructure to cement its place on the production map. And with Studio Ulster, it may have just landed its most powerful calling card yet.

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As lawmakers weigh a $750 million expansion to California’s tax credit program, insiders argue the clock is running out on the state’s production future.

 

On June 11, a cross-section of Hollywood creatives and below-the-line workers descended on Sacramento not for a red carpet, but for a high-stakes lobbying effort aimed at preserving California’s role as a global production capital. Their mission: convince legislators to fast-track a proposed expansion of the state’s film and television tax credit—from $330 million to $750 million annually—amid a deepening budget crisis and a worsening production slowdown.

The trip, led by producer and activist Scott Budnick, included directors Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Jonathan Nolan (Fallout), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), and Oscar-winner Cord Jefferson (American Fiction), alongside unionized tradespeople trained by nonprofit Hollywood CPR. The diverse coalition brought a unified message: the state’s production infrastructure is in crisis, and without swift intervention, the damage could become permanent.

One data point loomed large throughout the day: soundstage occupancy in Los Angeles County has plunged to 63% in 2024, down from 95% in 2018 and 94% in 2020, according to FilmLA. That number, perhaps more than any other, crystallized the urgency of the moment.

“It’s not a theoretical problem anymore,” Nolan said. “We’re watching our capacity hollow out in real time.”

Indeed, with Lucasfilm relocating Ahsoka and other Star Wars titles out of Manhattan Beach Studios to the U.K., the message was clear: even marquee franchises are no longer anchored to Southern California. And while some shows may return if incentives rebound, the current outlook is bleak. In 2023, occupancy dropped to 69%, followed by a further decline this year—a signal that the strikes were not the sole cause.

“It’s not just about stars or studios,” Budnick emphasized. “It’s about the 200-plus jobs on a set—painters, grips, electricians—many of whom haven’t worked consistently since the dual strikes ended.”

Inside Sacramento’s 1021 O Street swing space, lawmakers were sympathetic but realistic. “You’re under a lot of pressures; we’re under a lot of pressures,” State Sen. Ben Allen told the group, referencing the state’s $12 billion budget gap and competing demands on healthcare, education, and housing.

Still, legislators are exploring a “trailer bill” to fast-track the incentive expansion as part of the broader budget package, potentially implementing it as early as July. Advocates argue that injecting funds now could prevent further erosion of the state’s production ecosystem.

“This door is closing,” Jenkins told colleagues between meetings. “We have to pry it open now, not six months from now.”

The stakes are personal for Jenkins, who’s lived in California for decades but has rarely filmed here. “In 30 years, I’ve shot only three weeks in L.A.,” she said. “And every time, I’ve had to choose between taking my son out of state or leaving him behind.”

The state’s current program, while robust compared to most, is falling behind regions like Georgia, the U.K., and Canada—where incentives are not just higher, but more predictable. Jenkins noted her next tentpole is almost certain to shoot out of state. “There’s no way I can close the gap. The delta is just too big.”

Budnick, for his part, is clear-eyed about the road ahead. Even if the expansion passes, it won’t reverse the downturn overnight. But it could stem the outflow—and give California a fighting chance.

“This isn’t about a golden age coming back,” he said. “It’s about whether we’ll have an industry left to build on.”

The message resonated with Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who authored the bill and represents a swath of Los Angeles that includes much of Hollywood’s traditional footprint. “We’re not going to win every project,” he told the group, “but this gives us a chance to compete again.”

And right now, that chance may be everything.

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Occidental Studios, a 3-acre gated campus nestled in Echo Park, is being listed for $45 million. The storied lot—originally built in 1913 and once home to silent film icons Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks—has remained a quiet workhorse through the studio system, the cable boom, and the streaming era. Now, it enters the open market at a time when the city’s soundstage occupancy has dropped to just 63%, a dramatic slide from the 93% range held between 2016 and 2022, per FilmLA.

“It’s private, it’s intimate, and it’s functional,” says Occidental CEO Craig Darian, calling it “Old Hollywood at its best.”

Despite a string of headwinds—including shifting content strategies, a historic labor strike, and rising competition from Georgia, Canada, and the U.K.—Occidental Studios has remained active. Recent credits include New Girl, Sharp Objects, and Made for Love, while its four soundstages (including a newly built 15,000-square-foot space with a 45-foot clear height) continue to host commercials, prestige cable shoots, and live events.

Still, Darian admits the listing reflects a shift: “We’re service providers, not content creators. And this property deserves to be in the hands of someone who will push its creative potential forward.”

A Legacy Property With Modern Appeal

Broker Nicole Mihalka of CBRE, who is overseeing the sale, says the lot is the only studio property of its size currently available for sale or lease in Los Angeles. The site includes postproduction suites, a basecamp, parking, production offices, and on-site casting bungalows—making it a turnkey production environment, a significant advantage in an era where building from scratch can take years and cost double.

Mihalka points to robust early interest from content creators, streamers, and tech companies alike. “It’s rare to find this combination of history and flexibility. This is a working lot that’s still doing what it was built to do.”

A Centurial Backlot of Innovation

Occidental’s place in cinema history is secure. The studio once housed the early work of Cecil B. DeMille, and served as a key location for the founding members of United Artists. Over the decades, it evolved into a nimble production hub, offering a close-in alternative to warehouse-style soundstages farther from the Thirty Mile Zone.

Even as the Hollywood production landscape continues to shift, Occidental has kept pace. One of its more recent additions—Stage One, a four-story, 20,000-square-foot production building—opened in 2011 at a cost of $9 million and was purpose-built for contemporary content workflows, from script to screen.

“There could be 300 people working here on any given day,” says studio president Ricky Stoutland. “Writers are breaking episodes, editors are cutting dailies, and a stage is being flipped while another one shoots.”

A Sale Reflecting an Industry in Transition

While the $45 million price tag—roughly $651 per square foot—may feel lofty for some real estate investors (especially when compared to the $489 per square foot price fetched by Henson Studios last year), Darian argues that the infrastructure and zoning already in place are worth a premium.

“It’s not distressed,” he says. “It’s a generational asset ready for its next act.”

That next act may come as Los Angeles fights to hold on to its crown as the global production capital. Mayor Karen Bass has fast-tracked permitting and opened city landmarks to crews. And Sacramento legislators are weighing expansions to California’s tax credit program in an attempt to keep high-value productions in-state.

Yet new players—from Stan Kroenke’s studio campus near SoFi Stadium to out-of-state megastages—are reshaping the production map.

“This is an existential moment for the industry,” Darian says. “But we still believe that Los Angeles, with its legacy, talent pool, and creative spirit, will always be the place where content begins.”

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The landmark Television City in Fairfax has teamed with Interwoven Studios to transform its soundstages into creator-ready production spaces. The move comes amid a sharp downturn in on-location shooting: TV production in L.A. plunged nearly 30% in Q1 2025 compared to the prior year, while feature shoots fell almost 29% during the same period  . Overall, 2024 recorded the fewest shoot days in L.A. since pre-pandemic times, excluding 2020  .

“We’re looking to create a stage for the future,” said Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president at Hackman, emphasizing the surging demand from creators tapping into L.A.’s production value  . Already, the new model has attracted digital stars like Logan Paul, Jake Shane and gaming powerhouse FaZe Clan, who have utilized Television City’s hair and makeup suites, green rooms, grip lighting packages, control rooms, wardrobe services, and lounge areas .

The pivot reflects a broader industry recalibration. With studio occupancy in Los Angeles hanging at about 63% — down from highs above 90% during the mid‑2010s — and fierce competition from states and countries offering richer incentives, traditional production pipelines are under mounting pressure  .

Interwoven Studios cofounder Harrison Sheinberg said he’s witnessed a shift in tone. “The set design was inspired by old school late-night talk shows — perfect to host creators and merge those histories,” he commented .

This trend isn’t unique to Television City. Developers are racing to accommodate a new kind of content creator. Sports teams like Dude Perfect in Texas have built massive content-centric campuses—featuring indoor courts and production facilities—to meet robust digital demand. Hackman may soon adapt this formula to other iconic lots under its portfolio — including Radford, Culver and Astoria Studios .

The evolution underscores the reality that today’s video ecosystem spans far beyond traditional network pipelines. Consumers are increasingly drawn to influencer-led content—56% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials say they relate more to online creators than to established screen personalities .

Rather than fight the exodus of scripted shows, soundstage owners like Hackman are reimagining their role — facilitating creator growth and hope to fortify Los Angeles’ legacy as the capital of content creation.

Read the full article in the Hollywood Reporter HERE

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Set to launch August 18, the partnership will bring GFA’s training programs into a new 32,000-square-foot facility inside Assembly Studios, a massive production complex located on the site of the former General Motors plant in Doraville. The initiative promises hands-on, immersive learning opportunities—placing students directly into the rhythms and realities of a working studio environment.

“This partnership represents a leap forward in training the next generation of Georgia’s film workforce,” said Scott Votaw, assistant vice chancellor of the Georgia Film Academy. “By integrating our curriculum with Assembly Studios’ world-class facilities, we’re giving students access to real sets, real professionals and real opportunities.”

Assembly Studios, owned by Gray Media and envisioned as a next-generation creative hub with a focus on sustainability and public engagement, is one of several high-profile studio developments reshaping Georgia’s entertainment infrastructure. For Gray Media, the collaboration is about more than workforce development—it’s about creating a lasting pipeline between education and industry.

“One of Georgia’s most remarkable treasures is the Georgia Film Academy,” said Hilton H. Howell Jr., CEO and executive chairman of Gray Media. “This partnership places students right at the doorstep of Assembly Studios—offering an unparalleled opportunity to thrive in the vibrant film and production world.”

Founded in 2015, GFA has played a pivotal role in Georgia’s emergence as a top-tier production destination, credited with pioneering one of the industry’s most recognized models for workforce development. In addition to certifications in film and television production, postproduction, live event broadcasting, and even esports, the academy also offers paid apprenticeships and set internships—giving students rare access to real-world productions.

This new Assembly Studios facility joins GFA’s flagship campus at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville and expands its reach to six instructional hubs across the state. As Georgia continues to attract marquee film and television projects, the collaboration underscores a long-term commitment to nurturing local talent and sustaining production growth.

“Assembly Studios was built to be more than a production facility; it’s a destination where creativity and community come together,” said Justin Campbell, VP of studio operations at Assembly Atlanta. “Partnering with the Georgia Film Academy allows us to open our doors to students who will become the creators, technicians and visionaries of tomorrow.”

As streaming platforms and studios continue to scout cost-effective, infrastructure-rich regions for their productions, Georgia’s investment in education-to-industry pipelines could be a key differentiator. For the next generation of filmmakers and crew, that future begins on set.

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As streaming giants recalibrate for a post-peak TV era, Max’s The Pitt has quietly established itself as a prototype for a new kind of series: a high-volume, network-style procedural engineered for efficiency, creative sustainability, and economic sensibility.

Now deep into production on Season 2, The Pitt is bucking the streaming norms of six-episode seasons and long production lulls. Instead, the medical drama—anchored by Noah Wyle and helmed by ER veterans R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells—leans into a traditional 15-episode arc and a fast-paced release cycle that benefits crew continuity and capitalizes on infrastructure already in place.

Shot primarily at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, with exterior scenes filmed in Pittsburgh, The Pitt blends narrative authenticity with practical production strategy. The second season, set over a tense Fourth of July weekend, is scheduled to debut in January 2026—less than a year after its Season 1 finale, thanks to a tight eight-month turnaround.

“In a landscape dominated by expensive limited series, this show was designed to move,” says an industry source familiar with the production. “It runs like a network show—but with the production values of prestige streaming.”

Max Content chairman and CEO Casey Bloys has championed the show as a strategic counterweight to big-budget tentpoles. “A slate has to be diverse,” Bloys recently said. “I’ve got to keep people engaged throughout the year, so you have to look for other things that can do it.”

Part of that strategy is economic. With a per-episode budget reportedly just under $5 million, The Pitt costs a fraction of some prestige dramas—yet delivers a return that includes critical acclaim (a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes), strong viewership, and repeatable production rhythm.

Crucially, the show is made in California. “There wasn’t a lot of discussion of, ‘Should we go to Canada?’ or ‘Should we go elsewhere?’” Bloys said, noting Warner Bros.’ deep L.A. footprint. A California tax credit helped close the gap. “I would hope that California will expand the incentive program because it does make a difference,” he added.

The series has also struck a chord with medical professionals, who’ve praised its procedural realism. The ensemble cast—featuring Tracey Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, Supriya Ganesh, and others—has received attention for its emotional range and team dynamics.

Executive produced by Gemmill, Wells, Wyle, Michael Hissrich, Erin Jontow, and Simran Baidwan, The Pitt is a production of John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

With its deliberate pivot toward consistency, affordability, and domestic production, The Pitt is not just a hit—it’s a model. In a fractured content economy, that kind of design matters more than ever.

The post How The Pitt Reimagines Procedural Production for the Streaming Era appeared first on StageRunner.

A wave of fresh productions is heading to Utah, as the state doubles down on its film incentive strategy. Among the newly approved projects receiving tax credits is Y: Marshals, a spinoff of the blockbuster Yellowstone franchise, set to star Luke Grimes reprising his role as Kayce Dutton.

The announcement, made Friday by the Utah Film Commission, includes four productions in total, which are expected to generate approximately $57.4 million in local economic impact and create more than 380 jobs across Salt Lake, Summit, Wasatch and Uintah counties.

Y: Marshals marks a homecoming of sorts. While Yellowstone originally filmed in Utah for three seasons, the series moved to Montana in pursuit of more competitive tax incentives—prompting Utah lawmakers to revise their incentive structure, particularly to attract rural-based shoots. The new installment will be produced by Paramount Global and carries a reported $52 million budget. Principal photography will begin this fall in Summit County.

“Utah is such a draw for film and television because of its diverse landscapes, fantastic crews, and amazing, knowledgeable film office,” said Adam Morra, VP of Planning and Finance at Paramount Global. “There is no doubt, though, the film incentive is a vital and necessary part of the package.”

Also greenlit for incentives is the seventh season of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, the History Channel’s long-running docuseries exploring paranormal phenomena at the infamous Uintah County location. That series, filming exclusively in a rural county, qualifies for the state’s rural film tax credit and comes with a $3.2 million production budget.

Independent feature Keep Coming Back, directed and produced by Mark Rosman (A Cinderella Story), will shoot across Wasatch and Summit counties with a $1.8 million budget. Rosman praised the state’s seasoned crews and close proximity to Los Angeles, adding, “When it came to picking a state to shoot the film, it was natural to look at Utah.”

Rounding out the slate is Freshman Inventors, a competition series from Netflix showcasing next-gen tech innovators. The unscripted project will film in Salt Lake County with a $300,000 budget and will receive support through Utah’s Community Film Incentive Program.

A Two-Tiered Incentive Strategy

Utah’s Motion Picture Incentive Program offers a refundable tax credit of up to 25% on qualified expenditures, with set-asides for productions that shoot in rural counties or originate locally.

The Rural Film Incentive earmarks $12 million annually for projects that shoot at least 75% of production days in qualifying counties—Y: Marshals, Skinwalker Ranch, and Keep Coming Back all fall under this category.

Meanwhile, the Community Film Incentive Program offers a 20% post-performance cash rebate for Utah-originated projects with budgets between $100,000 and $500,000, with a goal of nurturing emerging filmmakers.

The combined approach appears to be working. With major streamers and established IPs returning to the state—and independents taking advantage of regional support—Utah’s evolving production infrastructure is positioning itself as a Western outpost with both creative range and competitive appeal.

The post ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff Among Four Projects Tapping Utah Tax Credit Program appeared first on StageRunner.

In the middle of the U.K.’s surging production boom, one company has quietly become indispensable to some of the world’s biggest blockbusters. Clear Angle Studios, a global leader in 3D capture and photogrammetry, is redefining how visual effects are made—and it’s doing so from a futuristic hub inside Pinewood Studios.

If you’ve seen the gravity-defying stunts in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, marveled at the sci-fi duality of Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, or followed the textured realism of Andor, you’ve already seen Clear Angle’s work. With proprietary scanning technology and a suite of custom-built camera rigs, Clear Angle is giving filmmakers photorealistic digital doubles, environments, props—and, perhaps most notably, the ability to capture an actor’s exact facial performance in 48 frames per second.

At the center of their innovation is “Dorothy,” an ultra-high resolution facial capture rig made up of 90 cameras—just one of three in existence. The others reside in Culver City and Atlanta, though the latter has temporarily relocated to London to meet the city’s skyrocketing demand. “There’s quite a lot of shooting here,” co-founder Dominic Ridley tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Whereas there’s not very much going on in Atlanta or L.A., at all, currently.”

Clear Angle Studios mobile full body scanning rig. The company currently has 18 rigs operating around the world.

Clear Angle’s services have become critical for studios looking to safely and convincingly place actors into high-risk or impossible scenarios. From digitally reconstructing stunts to scanning exotic animals for VFX use, the company’s global presence—18 full-body rigs across cities like Vancouver, Athens, Cape Town, and Budapest—makes it a vital resource in today’s globally distributed production pipelines.

While the tech dazzles, so does the scale: the company has scanned up to 300 people in a single day at Pinewood. They’ve worked across major titles including Deadpool & Wolverine, Lilo & Stitch, and How to Train Your Dragon. The data they collect is handed off to VFX vendors—but only after receiving full, informed consent from talent, Ridley emphasizes. “We give 24 hours notice, explain the system, and talent has to opt in.”

Clear Angle’s approach to data security is rigorous. “Everything’s offline, inaccessible from the outside,” Ridley says, responding to growing concerns about how actors’ likenesses are stored and used in the AI age. “We’ve never seen a case of data being reused across productions. That’s just not a thing.”

As AI tools begin blurring the line between creation and imitation, Clear Angle occupies a uniquely human-centered position: enabling the creative process with precision, while respecting the rights and agency of the people being digitized. Their role, once niche, is now central to how modern tentpoles are made—and how future content might evolve.

Ridley admits there have been financial hurdles: “Cameras, servers—it adds up. We put a house on the line to get this started.” But the bet paid off. With clients ranging from Marvel and Lucasfilm to Netflix and Apple, Clear Angle is now at the epicenter of VFX evolution.

And the demand isn’t slowing. “We hate turning people away,” Ridley says. “But we’d rather do that than stretch ourselves thin and do a poor job.”

What keeps him going isn’t just the tech. It’s the people. “Studios hire us for the data, sure. But they want to work with these people for six months. That’s what I remember. That’s what matters.”

In a landscape shaped increasingly by algorithms and automation, Clear Angle Studios is staking a claim for precision, performance—and people—at the center of Hollywood’s next great transition.

The post Inside the Secret Scanning Studio Where Hollywood’s Biggest Stars Become Digital Doubles appeared first on StageRunner.

The lawsuit accuses Midjourney of using copyrighted images of iconic characters—from Shrek to Yoda—to train its generative models, which now produce shockingly similar (and legally questionable) facsimiles. Disney’s chief legal officer minced no words: “Piracy is piracy.”

The lawsuit marks a turning point, a line drawn in the sand as studios face an existential question: will they remain creative powerhouses, or fade into data vendors managing yesterday’s IP?

What’s most striking is how late this lawsuit comes in the AI litigation timeline. The New York Times fired the first legal salvo back in 2023 against OpenAI and Microsoft. Then came individual authors. Then came media companies. But the major Hollywood studios, those with the most recognizable and valuable visual IP in the world, held off—until now.

There may be strategy in the delay. In legal terms, Midjourney is among the smaller, less capitalized players in the generative AI field—a softer target for what could become a broader war. As 2025 unfolds, expect more lawsuits to follow, perhaps against better-funded operators like OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Stability AI.

But the bigger picture is clear: Hollywood’s future is on the line.

If the studios lose this fight, it won’t just mean a few unpaid licensing fees. It could fundamentally erode the economic foundation of how content is created. AI tools trained on Hollywood’s archives can already generate new content at unprecedented speed and scale. If that content becomes good enough—and cheap enough—why would the next generation of creators, platforms, or consumers wait for a studio to greenlight anything?

In that world, studios shift from creators to licensors, overseeing the slow monetization of back-catalogs while startups and solo creators, armed with AI, churn out endless variations of what came before. Think TikTok with a Pixar filter. Think Netflix without the cost of production. Think: the end of the studio system as we know it.

Some argue we’re already halfway there. Studio output is dominated by franchise IP, while tech-driven upstarts experiment with format, tone, and speed. But generative AI could make that trend irreversible. Once models are trained on the best of what Hollywood has produced, and once consumers begin accepting AI-made entertainment, what’s left for studios to control?

The stakes are existential. Either studios reclaim their content, and with it their cultural and economic relevance—or they risk becoming the fossil fuel of the media ecosystem: critical to past progress, but slowly phased out by something faster, cheaper, and ultimately more scalable.

Bob Iger may not want to be remembered as the CEO who presided over Disney’s transformation from Dream Factory to IP landlord. But legal advisors may warn him: better a compromised deal than a total loss.

For now, the case sits with a Los Angeles District Court. But the implications reach far beyond legal briefs. They go to the heart of Hollywood’s future: will it be driven by human creativity, or by the very machines trained on it?

Whatever happens, this is no longer a theoretical threat. The studios are in the fight now. And the clock is ticking.

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Walmart has officially thrown its hat into the virtual production ring with the launch of its new state-of-the-art TV studio—complete with a 32-foot curved LED wall—located at the heart of its newly opened Home Office campus in Bentonville, Arkansas. But this isn’t just a facility upgrade. It’s a bold statement: the world’s largest retailer is now in the business of creating high-volume content, in-house, on demand.

Anchored by a 160-panel Alfalite ModularPix Pro 1.5 LED wall and powered by Brompton processing, the Walmart TV Studio (WMTV) brings extended reality (XR) production capabilities under Walmart’s own roof. The curved wall delivers 6400×2560 pixel resolution and boasts nearly 170-degree viewing angles, enabling Walmart to create immersive, virtual environments for both internal communications and outward-facing storytelling. “The downtime saved while changing out physical sets versus a virtual one is a game changer,” said Dave Magnia, Chief Engineer of AV/Broadcast Engineering at Walmart. “A few clicks, and a new virtual set is ready to go for the next video project.”

This high-spec installation—engineered in partnership with FOR-A America and designed with durability in mind—leverages Alfalite’s ORIM technology, enhancing color performance, impact resistance, and visual clarity. But the real story isn’t just technical. It’s strategic.

Walmart’s new studio is a striking example of a growing trend among major brands: building internal production infrastructure to meet the relentless pace and volume demands of digital content, especially across social platforms. Rather than relying solely on external agencies or third-party production vendors, companies like Walmart are bringing the tools of Hollywood in-house—creating broadcast-quality video at the speed of business.

The 350-acre Home Office campus, envisioned as a sustainability-focused reimagining of corporate headquarters, includes Sam Walton Hall—a 200,000-square-foot auditorium and collaboration hub that houses the new studio. With 60,000 square feet dedicated to learning, production, and innovation, it’s clear that Walmart isn’t just training employees; it’s producing a steady stream of high-impact media designed for a modern, content-first brand ecosystem.

The shift reflects a new era where brands operate like media companies—building their own studios, hiring full-scale production teams, and investing in cinematic tools once reserved for film and TV. And for a company with Walmart’s scale, the ROI isn’t just in savings—it’s in speed, control, and consistency.

“This collaboration highlights Walmart’s commitment to innovation,” said Silvia C. Natal, International Sales Manager at Alfalite. “It demonstrates the power of advanced LED solutions in high-profile, high-output content environments.”

As platforms evolve and audiences expect content that feels as immersive as it is immediate, the move toward internal production studios may no longer be a luxury—it may be table stakes. With WMTV up and running, Walmart is positioning itself not just as a retailer, but as a content machine.

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