Netflix is trying to send two messages at once: Los Angeles is still home, and the company is not waiting around for California to solve its production problem.

The streamer says L.A. remains its production home, though its growing footprint in New Jersey and New Mexico underscores the increasingly competitive economics reshaping where Hollywood gets made.

The streamer says it filmed 46 productions in Los Angeles last year and expects a similar number this year, even as it expands aggressively in other production hubs with richer incentives and fewer logistical headaches.

That balancing act comes as California continues to fight runaway production. According to FilmLA, on-location filming in Los Angeles fell 13 percent in the second quarter compared with the prior year. For local crew members, vendors, stages and small businesses, the slowdown has been more than a data point. It has been a daily reality.

Netflix’s Los Angeles activity still carries weight. Since 2018, the company says it has shot more than 300 productions in the area. Its 2026 local slate includes The Night Agent, another installment of Ryan Murphy’s Monster, and David Fincher’s sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. Recent L.A. shoots have included The Hawk, Nemesis, Nobody Wants This and The Lincoln Lawyer.

Chief content officer Bela Bajaria has been clear that the company still sees Los Angeles as central to its identity and output. Netflix is already one of Hollywood’s largest commercial tenants, leasing about 1.5 million square feet of office and studio space. It also owns the Egyptian Theatre and is under contract to buy Radford Studio Center, the 55-acre Studio City lot with 22 stages and three backlots.

But Netflix is also following the math.

The company has expanded its New Mexico production facility and is building a $1 billion studio complex in New Jersey on a former U.S. Army installation. That project is expected to include 12 soundstages, and Netflix already has 20 projects lined up in the state.

The reason is not complicated. New Jersey’s incentive program is widely viewed as more flexible than California’s. It includes above-the-line costs and does not have the same per-project cap. California has recently modernized its tax credit, but producers still point to limits, uncertainty and the broader cost of doing business as major challenges.

That is the real story for the production community.

Netflix may be publicly reaffirming Los Angeles, but its investments show how competitive the production map has become. States are not just competing on stages anymore. They are competing on incentives, permitting speed, crew depth, infrastructure, cost of living and predictability.

For Los Angeles, Netflix’s continued presence matters. The streamer says it worked with more than 2,900 L.A. County businesses in 2025 and contributed more than $400 million to the local economy. Productions like The Hawk, which brought nearly 300 cast and crew members to Woodland Hills Country Club and used more than 370 local vendors, show how quickly a single project can ripple through the local production ecosystem.

For vendors, prop houses, caterers, equipment suppliers and location partners, the equation is simple: productions mean revenue, jobs and survival.

But the larger warning remains. If California wants to remain the center of global production, history and infrastructure will not be enough. The state still has the deepest crew base, the strongest creative ecosystem and the most concentrated entertainment infrastructure in the world. But other regions are making the economics easier.

Netflix is not leaving Los Angeles.

It is hedging.

And that may be the clearest signal of where production is headed.