Hollywood Spending in Illinois Rises as State Aims for More TV and Movie Projects

Five seasons of FX's 'The Bear' were shot in Chicago, Illinois. Everett

The state of Illinois appears to be taking a growing share of Hollywood’s overall production spending pie by attracting a mix of indies, high-profile series and streaming shows. And it doesn’t hurt having three Chicago shows that are all running strong — with 6 million-plus viewers on NBC for the latest Med, Fire and PD crossover — after 10-plus seasons.

The state has grown its film production expenditure to $703 million in 2025, up from $560 million in pre-pandemic 2019, a figure that the office of Gov. JB Pritzker shared with The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday and called an “all-time high” for the state. The figure aligns with data from industry tracker ProdPro, which reported that production spend in Illinois saw a 46 percent increase in the fourth quarter of last year to $240 million, while the state’s filming count grew 70 percent year-over-year in the same quarter.

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For comparison, that filming count growth would put Illinois in the same momentum category as New Jersey, aka “Hollywood East,” which saw shoots increase 75 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to ProdPro. The Garden State, however, will soon be home to major studio soundstage bases from Paramount, Netflix and Lionsgate and has higher overall production spend.

Illinois, meanwhile, has been host to Dick Wolf’s Chicago procedurals as well as premium cabler shows like Paramount+’s The Chi (entering its 8th and final season) as well as FX’s The Bear (which is in production on its 5th and final season) as well as three seasons apiece of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere and Starz’ Power Book IV: Force.

The Illinois governor’s office also disclosed that film industry wages grew from $350 million in 2019 to $401 million in 2025 and that hires (including extras) rose from 15,200 to 18,100. That background actors data point is a notable indicator about where work may be for Hollywood jobs. The state’s figure is also in line with entertainment industry payroll processor’s Everyset’s internal data showing Illinois as seeing large growth in extras jobs booked last year.

“For nearly 120 years, Illinois has helped shape the film and television industry — from the early days of Charlie Chaplin to today’s hit productions like Chicago Fire, The Bear, and The Chi,” said Gov. Pritzker in a statement. “By investing in our workforce, expanding our film tax credit, and building world-class production infrastructure, Illinois is creating good union jobs and attracting major productions from across the industry. With more than $700 million in film production in 2025, the message is clear: Illinois is a top destination to make movies and television.”

The Prairie State bolstered its Film Production Tax Credit when Pritzker signed in to law SB 1911 in December, updating a program offering a 35 percent credit on qualified spending in state and extending it through 2039.

The expanded incentives underscore the bets on the infrastructure side being made in the state. That includes the Southern Illinois project in Wood River titled Hollywood River Studios, which is being developed as a complex with six soundstages, or Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul, which has hosted Tubi and indie projects, or the in-development Rockline Studios in Rock Island. “The governor and the legislature focusing on and enhancing the Illinois film tax credit is the main reason my group is investing,” stated Hollywood River developer Chris Breakwell.

The race for productions has become an increasingly high-wire act. Take Georgia, which had invested in infrastructure only to see major departures like Marvel Studios leave Atlanta for incentives in the U.K. in London. Spend in the state has fallen from $4.4 billion in 2022, when it hosted 412 productions, to $2.6 billion in fiscal 2024, when 273 projects shot on-location. Those spend numbers fell even further last year, per figures recently shared with the Associated Press, to $2.3 billion and 245 projects in 2025.

Or, to take another top U.S. filming location, look at New Mexico for a similar trendline. Despite Netflix’s major investment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the state that’s home to Vince Gilligan’s TV universe (Pluribus, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad) as well as all four seasons of AMC’s Navajo police thriller Dark Winds has seen a downtick in film count and production spend in the last quarter of 2025, per ProdPro figures. New Mexico also saw a peak of production spending in 2022 — the height of Hollywood studios’ spending on original projects for streaming platforms — at $855.4 million, that figure dropped to $323 million in fiscal 2025 “due to an industry-wide contraction in productions,” per a report from the state’s film office last June.

Then there’s the two biggest giants, California and New York, which have aggressively courted projects from each other for years and also boast massive incentive programs (capped at $750 million and $800 million annually, respectively). Even in a down year like last year, the Golden State saw a trailing twelve month production spend of $5.75 billion, per ProdPro’s tally, or about $5 billion more than Illinois. But filming count and spend numbers are declining, worrying production advocates in Los Angeles and across the state, who argue that more red tape needs to be cut to encourage projects to stay.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been aggressive about expanding California’s own film and TV incentive to keep Hollywood in its historic home. The state’s film commission doled out $128 million each in tax credits on March 18 to Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery alone to shoot titles like Family Guy spinoff Stewie, acclaimed drama The Pitt, comedy I Love LA and many more projects in California. Despite those efforts, Los Angeles has seen soundstage occupancy fall from 96 percent in 2016 to 62 percent in the first half of 2025. Studio soundstage operators without anchor tenants have been finding it more difficult to fill those spaces. That’s where it helps to have long-running broadcast series in the fold. Like, say, Chicago Med.