On a large sound stage in Santa Clarita that contains one of the sets from the Amazon Prime Video series Fallout, executive producer Jonathan Nolan described state tax incentives as essential to keeping the production in California.
The series, a high-budget adaptation of a videogame set in a post-nuclear landscape, filmed its first season in New York. California secured the show for its second season by offering $25 million in tax rebates, Nolan said. He added that without the tax credit, "it would be a non-starter and we wouldn't be able to be here." Nolan made the remarks while seated in a folding lawn chair on the set of a "Vault," a subterranean fallout shelter dressed in the show's retro-futuristic style.
Nolan has been an active proponent of the state's expanded incentives, advocating for the approval of $750 million in tax rebates intended to draw more film and television work back to California. He also invited state legislators onto the set last year to demonstrate the direct benefits the incentives could bring to actors and the many craftspeople who support production.
The California Film Commission reports that Fallout remained in the state for its third season after receiving $42 million in tax credits on a $166.3 million budget. That funding, according to the commission, enabled the production to hire nearly 600 crew members and 30 actors.
Industry leaders, including Nolan, have grown accustomed to flying productions to locations such as London, Budapest and Sydney. He said that perception - that Hollywood would always be Hollywood - has shifted over the past five years. "People sort of laughed at the idea that Hollywood would ever stop being Hollywood - but I think the last five years, it really has," Nolan said.
Employment across the entertainment industry has softened since a peak in late 2022, reducing opportunities for performers, writers and the thousands of tradespeople who work on sets, from carpenters and costumers to camera operators and caterers. The Milken Institute found that California lost 17,234 jobs in the sector from 2019 through 2023. The institute cited a mix of factors behind the change, including declining television advertising revenue and stagnating streaming growth, which have pushed studios to seek less costly production locations.
Sound stage utilization in the greater Los Angeles area has also fallen. Film LA, the non-profit that coordinates filming in the region, reports that occupancy in Hollywood sound stages dropped to 62 percent in the first half of 2025, down from nearly full occupancy in 2016. Nolan warned that the trend "threatens to hollow out and destroy a 100-year cultural institution that is maybe one of the most important parts of American culture and our ability to broadcast our culture around the world." He added, "So, I think the rebate was essential in bringing us back."
Actor Walton Goggins, who portrays Cooper Howard and the bounty hunter The Ghoul on the series, told Reuters he is grateful to be working in Los Angeles. "This job permeates every aspect of this city and so to be back here filming this show that employs this many people - artisans that are the best in the world at what they do, given the opportunity to operate at their highest level - I'm in awe," Goggins said. He added, "I only hope that this tax credit expands so that more production can come back here."
The persistent departure of productions from California, the reported job losses and falling stage occupancy rates are central to the argument supporters of the tax incentives make: that financial inducements can restore economic activity tied to filmmaking and preserve the complex network of skilled labor and services that comprise the regional industry.
At the same time, the data cited in public reports underline the structural challenges the sector faces. Declining ad revenue for television and weak streaming expansion are identified as key drivers pushing studios to alternative locations that may offer lower costs. The outcome of the policy effort to use rebates to reverse these trends will hinge on whether such incentives can sustainably attract and retain high-volume productions without introducing other budgetary or market distortions.
For now, Fallout's presence in Southern California, supported by millions in state tax credits, stands as a concrete example proponents cite when assessing the impact of the incentives on local employment and industrial infrastructure.