At Sky's new Elstree Studios near London, employees will soon be busy moving from the sets of the film adaptation of Wicked to the next installment of Jurassic Park, the latest Hollywood blockbuster produced in the UK.
Last year alone, half of the top 20 film releases were made at least partly in Britain, including barbie, Wonka, Mission: Impossible by dead reckoning, NapoleonAnd Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
But British film and TV executives say the activity casts a pall over an industry still struggling to recover from a combination of Hollywood strikes and financial problems that have hit British broadcasters and US streamers who have has been pumping money into new productions over the past decade.
Production is resuming this year, but the big streamers who supported the expansion will not return to their peak. They are all now trying to become profitable and break even, said Sir Peter Bazalgette, former chairman of ITV.
In 2023, more than 4.2 billion was spent on high-end film and TV production in the UK, supporting thousands of jobs, but this figure was almost a third lower than the year's spending former.
Production is only slowly picking up this year, media executives say. Winnersh Film Studios, which recently helped make Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, was placed into administration last month, citing cash flow problems caused by the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes in the United States. Smaller manufacturing companies are closing their doors or selling to larger competitors due to slow commissioning.
This drop in production was most severely felt among employees in the sector, many of whom work independently or under fixed-term contracts around a show or film.
A February survey by media and entertainment union Bectu of more than 4,000 British film and TV workers found that 68 percent of those surveyed were not working, just slightly more than during the last year's SAG-AFTRA industrial action in the United States.
“I haven't worked for six months, which is bad, but I know people who haven't worked in over a year,” said Antonia Hinds, a London-based producer who recently launched a new project. We were all experienced, qualified professionals, but now there are so many people applying for so few jobs. People are leaving the industry in droves.
She blamed the lack of jobs on cuts to streaming services after years of big-budget market expansion, and the shift from linear to digital services by Britain's public sector broadcasters, which are seeing their advertising revenue fall.
Ed King, who produced films including His home And Gnomeo and Juliet, said: I can't remember a quieter time in the UK in film and television. I was told that things won't start rolling until early next year.
Even the BBC, long a pillar of the British production industry thanks to taxpayer funding, has been forced to impose cuts due to the recent license fee freeze.
We always thought the return to production would be slow; six to nine months before returning to around 80 percent of normal levels. There will be fewer titles but not necessarily less budget, said Sir William Sargent, founder of visual effects group Framestore. The market will stabilize this year and see further growth in 2025.
The UK has been a prime location for film productions and TV shows for decades, with attractive tax breaks and talented workers attracting Hollywood studios. Bazalgette said these advantages have not changed and Britain remains one of the most competitive filming locations in the world.
Jan Koeppen, president of Disney in Europe, said: “Disney has invested significantly in the UK creative industry for decades; it has spent €3.5 billion over the past five years, made major films and series for television and streaming and created more than 30,000 jobs worldwide. process.
Investors hope to have bet that demand would rebound in the UK following strikes in Hollywood, with hundreds of millions of pounds committed to the development of new studios planned before the start of the industrial dispute. These could provide more than 3 million square feet of sound stages for filming, offices for post-production processes and workshops.
Sky opened 585,000 square feet of new studios in Elstree in September last year and estimates it will produce 3 billion film productions over a five-year period. Warner Bros is expanding its studios in Leavesden and is expected to create 4,000 jobs across Britain.
Shepperton Studios in Surrey was recently expanded to accommodate new productions from Amazon MGM Studios and Netflix, with 17 additional soundstages and 548,000 square feet of production and workshop space, making it the second largest largest film studio in the world.
In Sunderland, officials hope the €450 million Crown Works Studios will give the region a foothold in global film production. The developers, who have received government funding to help prepare the site but still need planning permission, want to create one of Europe's largest studio complexes including 20 soundstages by 2028.
Meanwhile, in west London, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, developers want to turn a former landfill site into film studios, creating more than 4,000 jobs. The site, which requires planning permission, is backed by director James Cameron.
Robert Laycock, chief executive of the development company behind the project, said bespoke studios in the UK had failed to meet demand from major producers. He predicted Hollywood studios would continue to make films in the UK in a quest for quality.
Executives also say the UK stays ahead of competition from other countries through financial incentives. Hundreds of millions in tax breaks were given to the UK's creative industries in the Chancellor's spring budget to encourage production, and included further relief on business rates for studios and spending on visual effects.
We will remain the production house of the world, predicts Bazalgette, who advises the government on its strategy for creative industries.
Additional funding was also given to the UK's independent film sector, a boon for executives worried that the UK would become known as an outsourcing location for international studios rather than adding to its long legacy of producer of his own world-renowned shows and programs. movies.
But industry executives added that Britain's public service broadcasters, such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, also need support to produce major nationally focused television shows, such as Mr. Bates versus the Post Officewhich highlighted the fate of the victims of the Horizon IT postal scandal.
Caroline Norbury, chief executive of Creative UK, a financial and independent network for the UK's creative industries, said supporting the local production sector would be crucial.
It's really difficult right now. But at the same time, we are experts, we have a global product that the international market is looking for, and we continue to create amazing new things.
