When Netflix brought the Will Ferrell golf comedy “The Hawk” to the Woodland Hills Country Club last year, it was the first big production to shoot there in more than two years.
Nearly 300 cast and crew members came through the gates. The production used more than 370 local vendors and shot at 41 locations.
For years, the club could count on that kind of work. Movie shoots and recurring TV shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “SWAT” helped keep members’ dues down and offset repair costs. But as big productions left Los Angeles, the golf course became a backdrop mostly for commercials, magazine spreads and social media shoots.
“A few clubs locally won’t even allow a camera on-site, let alone film crews,” said Rick Stegall, the club’s general manager. “But our club is very open to it. … There’s just a lot of benefits.”
“The Hawk,” which debuted last month, was among 46 productions Netflix says it filmed in L.A. last year, with a similar number planned for this year.
Even as the streaming giant ramps up its filming outside California, Netflix executives say L.A. remains a vital film hub for the company at a time when the city has been reeling from the exodus of film crews. On-location film shoots dropped 13% in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to FilmLA.
“L.A. is our home. … Our commitment is there to the city and state, and that, for me, is about showing up consistently with productions every year,” Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said in an interview.
Like other producers, Netflix has benefited from improvements to California’s tax incentive program intended to stem so-called runaway production, though Bajaria said the program is not as “comprehensive” as it needs to be.
“Even though we’re definitely encouraged by the way California has modernized the tax incentive recently,” Bajaria said. “But I still look forward to working with this next governor’s administration to make sure everybody understands what we are as an industry.”
Despite its commitment to filming in L.A., Netflix also has contributed to the growth of production in other states and countries offering steep tax breaks and rebates to producers.
Bajaria would not say how many films and TV shows Netflix is filming outside California this year, but said the state still accounts for the largest share of productions. In 2022, Netflix told The Times it was filming 70 productions primarily in L.A. A spokesperson said recently that the figure was an estimate and that it was likely closer to 50.
In 2024, Netflix expanded its production facility in New Mexico. And last year, the company began work on a $1-billion project to convert a former U.S. Army installation in New Jersey into a sprawling film complex with 12 soundstages. Netflix already has 20 projects lined up in New Jersey, Bajaria said.
She said New Jersey has streamlined the filmmaking process in a way California hasn’t. The California tax incentive excludes above-the-line costs and has a per-project cap, whereas New Jersey’s incentive includes above-the-line costs and doesn’t have a per-project cap.
The tax credit in California is also harder to obtain in advance and secure, compared with that of New Jersey, which has a quick turnover, said Mike S. Ryan, a professor of producing at Emerson College.
“The tax credit has to get way better, and then you’re also fighting the reality of the cost of living,” Ryan said.
The clearest sign of Netflix’s local intentions may be in Studio City. The company is under contract to buy Radford Studio Center, the production lot where it has leased space for years.
Radford’s current owner, Hackman Capital Partners, defaulted on $1.1 billion of bondholder debt and turned the property over to lenders led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The 55-acre studio, founded in 1928, features 22 stages and three backlots where iconic shows such as “Gunsmoke,” “Seinfeld” and “Gilligan’s Island” were made. Bajaria would not discuss the status of the Radford deal or plans for the facility.
The company is already Hollywood’s biggest commercial tenant, where it rents about 1.5 million square feet of office and studio space, and it owns the historic Egyptian Theatre, which it acquired in 2020.
Since 2018, Netflix says it has filmed more than 300 productions in L.A.
The 2026 slate includes the thriller series “The Night Agent,” another installment of Ryan Murphy’s “Monster” and the David Fincher-directed sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” Last year’s local productions included “The Hawk,” the jewelry heist drama “Nemesis” and new seasons of L.A.-centric shows such as “Nobody Wants This” and “The Lincoln Lawyer.”
Inside a Sunset Gower Studios soundstage in Hollywood, Mara Brock Akil, the creator behind the Netflix series “Forever,” recently gave Bajaria a tour of the set. The lights were dark in the re-created Beverly Hills home; the rest of the crew was on location filming in Highland Park. But with sneakers strewn in the doorway and a cookbook opened to a specific recipe, the faux house felt lived in.
“It all shows on-screen and helps people understand the characters,” Brock Akil said. “You are supposed to know these people.”
“Forever,” which tells the story of two teens living on opposite sides of the 10 Freeway who fall in love, is shooting its second season locally.
Productions “are really exploring and weaving in storylines with neighborhoods and landmarks and restaurants,” Bajaria said.
For the businesses that supply props, artwork and other services, the arithmetic is simpler: Any shoot is better than none. Netflix said it worked with more than 2,900 L.A. County businesses in 2025 — equipment houses, caterers, postproduction shops — and contributed more than $400 million to the city’s economy.
In 2025, California saw an estimated $5.5 billion in committed production spending for scripted TV and films, according to research firm ProdPro.
“It’s been a lifesaver,” said Tija Zamparelli Tromp, owner of Pinacoteca Picture Props in North Hollywood. “It’s wonderful to have a company that’s definitely making an effort to film again in Los Angeles. We’ve had so much runaway production.”
Her business has rented couches, artwork and other furniture to “Forever” and a vintage golf club mounted like a trophy to “The Hawk.” She estimates sales are up 18% from last year, although she declined to give exact revenue figures.
For Bajaria, the stakes are familiar. She grew up across different L.A. suburbs, in a family that owned car washes, and says she understands how delicate local economies can be.
“I remember growing up in a family business, and that you really rely” on the industry, she said. “We have so many talented people here who have made their livelihood making film and TV, and it’s their talent and their passion. It’s great when they get to sleep in their own bed and be with their families and do that.”
At the Woodland Hills Country Club, Stegall, the club’s general manager, says a two- or three-day shoot can bring in up to six figures.
“We’ve come to rely on [the income] a bit, but it is extra,” Stegall said. “It’s a bonus.”
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