Giggster logo

Inside California’s Film and TV Production Pipeline: How Disney, Warner and Paramount Stack Up

An analysis of California Film Commission-approved projects for fiscal year 2025-2026.

September 1, 2026

Inside California’s Film and TV Production Pipeline: How Disney, Warner and Paramount Stack Up

Could a Paramount-Warner combination create a stronger rival to Disney and Netflix, or reduce competition in key film and television markets? Paramount says the proposed deal would strengthen competition and support greater investment in content. The U.S. Justice Department closed its investigation in June after concluding that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition, while California and 11 other states sued the following month, alleging that it would reduce competition in wide-release theatrical film distribution and basic cable channel licensing.

Behind the legal fight is a measurable comparison of the companies’ approved production pipelines in California. Giggster analyzed 164 records from fiscal year 2025-2026 in the California Film Commission’s approved-project list to compare studio groups by qualified expenditures, approved projects, projected crew hires, and days of filming in California. The report also shows where a hypothetical Paramount-Warner combination would rank based on the two groups’ fiscal-year totals.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

  • In the Aug. 25, 2026, data snapshot, Disney had the largest approved pipeline among the mapped studio groups, with $1.16 billion in qualified expenditures across 23 approved projects.

  • A hypothetical Paramount-Warner combination would rank second, with $1.02 billion in qualified expenditures, behind Disney’s $1.16 billion.

  • Disney and Warner also report the most projected crew hires, at 4,930 and 3,777, respectively. Sony has the highest average among the eight studio groups, with about 461 projected crew hires per approved project.

  • Independent-company leaders vary by measure. Fifth Season ranks first by qualified expenditures, Artists Equity reports the most projected crew hires among the top 10, and 2AM reports the most days of filming in California.

Disney Leads Studio Groups by Qualified Expenditures



What the Data Shows:

  • Disney ranks first with $1.16 billion in qualified expenditures across 23 approved projects, representing 31% of the qualified expenditures included in the mapped studio-group total.

  • Warner Bros. Discovery ranks second with $858.3 million across 14 approved projects, followed by NBCUniversal with $409 million across nine projects.

  • Although Sony ranks fifth in total qualified expenditures, its four approved projects average about $78.3 million in qualified expenditures each, the highest average among the eight studio groups.

Paramount and Warner: How Close Would They Come to Disney?

What the Data Shows:

  • Warner’s approved pipeline is more than five times Paramount’s by qualified expenditures, at $858.3 million compared with $159.6 million.

  • Combining the two groups’ fiscal year 2025-2026 totals would create a hypothetical $1.02 billion pipeline. That total would rank second, about $138.4 million below Disney, and would account for 26%* of non-independent qualified expenditures.

  • The combined scenario would nearly match Disney in projected crew hires, with 4,802 compared with 4,930, and would total 1,309 days of filming in California, compared with Disney’s 1,194.

*The 26% figure represents the hypothetical combined group’s share of non-independent qualified expenditures in the California tax-credit dataset. It is not a share of the California production industry or an antitrust market share and should not be compared with the market shares alleged in the lawsuit.

Disney and Warner Report the Most Projected Crew Hires

What the Data Shows:

  • Disney ranks first with 4,930 projected crew hires, followed by Warner with 3,777. Together, they account for just over half of the projected crew hires among the eight studio groups.

  • Sony ranks third with 1,842 projected crew hires across four approved projects. Its average of about 461 crew hires per project is the highest among the eight studio groups shown.

  • Amazon MGM Studios ranks sixth in projected crew hires, with 1,426, but third in reported days of filming in California, with 355, behind only Disney and Warner.

Which Independent Production Companies Lead Among Approved Projects?

What the Data Shows:

  • Fifth Season ranks first among companies whose projects are classified as Independent by the California Film Commission, with $31.1 million in qualified expenditures, about $8.6 million more than second-place Artists Equity.

  • Artists Equity reports the most projected crew hires among the top 10, at 250, while 2AM reports the most days of filming in California, at 67.

  • The top 10 companies account for 38% of all independent qualified expenditures. Seven of the 10 have only one approved project.

Key Terms

Approved Production Pipeline

The approved or projected activity tied to a company’s or studio group’s California Film Commission-approved projects. In this report, pipeline size is measured using qualified expenditures, approved projects, projected crew hires, and reported days of filming in California. It does not represent completed production activity.

Approved Project

A film project, television project, or television season listed as approved by the California Film Commission for fiscal year 2025-2026. Approval does not mean that all projected spending, hiring, or filming occurred.

Qualified Expenditures

California production costs eligible under the state’s film and television tax credit program. The amounts may be approved or projected and are not total production budgets or confirmed final spending.

Studio Group

A parent entertainment company combined with its verified subsidiaries, affiliates, and project-specific production entities for this analysis.

Projected Crew Hires

The sum of project-level crew-hire figures reported across approved projects. These are not unique workers or permanent jobs, and the same person may be counted on more than one project.

Days of Filming in California

The sum of reported filming days across approved projects. This is a statewide measure and does not identify the city, county, or individual filming location.

Independent Production Company

An applicant company included in the independent ranking because its project records were classified as Independent by the California Film Commission. The label reflects the Commission’s project classification, not a separate assessment of the company’s ownership.

Hypothetical Combined Pipeline

The combined fiscal year 2025-2026 totals for Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. It does not represent a completed transaction or forecast future production activity.

You Might Also Be Interested In

Methodology

This report compares approved film and television production pipelines in California using qualified expenditures, approved projects, projected crew hires, and reported days of filming in California.

Data came from the California Film Commission’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program Approved Projects List (2025-2026), extracted Aug. 25, 2026. The analysis included 164 approved project and television-season records and excluded partial 2026-2027 data. Fiscal-year definitions came from the Commission’s The Basics 4.0 page. 

Qualified Expenditures

This category measures the total qualified expenditures associated with each company’s or studio group’s approved projects. Qualified expenditures were summed across all attributed fiscal year 2025-2026 projects. Higher totals rank higher.

Qualified expenditures represent program-eligible California spending associated with approved projects. They are not total production budgets or confirmed final spending.

Supporting Measures

Approved Projects is the number of project or television-season records attributed to a company or studio group.

Projected Crew Hires is the sum of the California Film Commission’s crew-hire values. These are project-level hiring totals, not unique workers.

Days of Filming in California is the sum of reported filming-day values. The measure is statewide and does not identify the city or county where filming occurred.

Average qualified expenditures per project were calculated by dividing qualified expenditures by approved projects. Crew hires per project were calculated by dividing projected crew hires by approved projects.

Studio Group Classification

Applicant companies were consolidated under parent studio groups only when the relationship was supported by official corporate or studio sources, government records, SEC filings, or official project announcements.

The verified mapping covers 95.5% of non-independent qualified expenditures. Unverified entities were excluded rather than assigned based on assumptions. The jointly attributed Fox Entertainment/Fremantle project was included in the mapped studio-group total but was not ranked as one parent group.

Paramount-Warner Comparison

Paramount Skydance’s total includes verified direct Paramount and CBS entities. Warner Bros. Discovery’s total includes verified Warner entities and documented project-specific companies linked to the group.

The hypothetical combined row adds the two groups’ fiscal year 2025-2026 totals. It does not represent a completed transaction or forecast future production activity.

Tommy & Me was excluded from Paramount’s core total because assigning the co-production’s full value to Paramount would overstate its pipeline.

Independent Production Companies

The independent-company ranking includes only projects classified as Independent by the California Film Commission. Projects were grouped by applicant company, with name changes limited to clear differences in capitalization, punctuation, and spacing.

The Commission’s classification was retained as published and does not represent a separate assessment of each company’s ownership.

Ranking Convention

Companies and studio groups were ranked from highest to lowest by the primary metric named in each table.

Studio Spend Share was calculated against $3.758 billion in mapped studio-group qualified expenditures. Non-Independent Share was calculated against $3.935 billion in non-independent qualified expenditures. The top 10 independent companies’ share was calculated against $492.493 million in independent qualified expenditures.

All rankings and calculations used unrounded values. Dollar amounts and percentages were rounded for display.

Things to Keep in Mind

The approved-project list may change as projects withdraw or published figures are updated. 

Qualified expenditures, crew hires, and filming days may not represent final completed activity. Crew-hire totals are project-level counts, not unique workers. Blank or dashed filming-day fields were treated as unavailable, not zero.

The analysis does not establish that the tax credit caused a production to remain in California. The Paramount-Warner comparison is a hypothetical addition of the two groups’ fiscal year 2025-2026 totals. It is not an antitrust analysis, market-share estimate, legal conclusion, or forecast of post-transaction production activity.

References to the proposed transaction and related litigation describe the parties’ allegations, findings, and stated positions. The report does not determine whether the proposed transaction violates antitrust law.