For years, when industry pros talked about production flight it was usually about projects leaving traditional film and television hubs like Los Angeles and New York, enticed by new tax credits, cheaper workplaces and less regulation in other U.S. states (or overseas). While that’s still true, some of these rising players now may be feeling the pain of fickle production, too.
In early March, the CEO of a major studio soundstage operator indicated that a few markets that had been seen as up-and-coming production players were now starting to experience some film and TV downturns. “L.A. and New York have seen a rise in production with the downfall of other markets like Albuquerque, New Mexico, New Orleans, Louisiana, Atlanta,” said Victor Coleman, who runs Hudson Pacific, the Sunset Bronson Studios owner where Netflix is a tenant in Los Angeles.
Less than two months later, Hudson Pacific is pulling the plug on its studio services supplier Quixote operating in Georgia and New Mexico as well as laying off 70 staffers in Atlanta and Los Angeles as it pares back its footprint, a source familiar with the decision tells The Hollywood Reporter.
In Georgia and New Mexico, Quixote operated a vehicle fleet along with offering production supplies for film and TV projects. In Los Angeles, the services firm is winding down leases at Quixote West Hollywood, which hosted commercial and music video shoots, as well as its Van Nuys lease at Quixote Central Valley (formerly named Chandler Valley Center Studios, aka the backdrop for NBC’s The Office.) The operator also leases Griffith Park Studios, which has an ongoing tenant, and will keep that location.
“Quixote’s fleet, equipment and supply rentals remain fully operational and ready to support production needs,” Sean Griffin, svp of sales for Quixote, stated to THR. “For clients of Quixote’s soundstage and Atlanta operations, we are taking a phased, collaborative approach to minimize disruption, while continuing to deliver a high level of service during this transition period.”
Hudson Pacific acquired Quixote in 2022 for $360 million at the height of the Streaming Wars content bubble when soundstages were seen as a better bet than office space. The firm is a notable provider of equipment, lighting, vehicle rental and other services for film and TV shoots and employer for below-the-line workers on projects. (Those Star Waggons trailers parked on a typical movie set for talent? That’s Quixote, the vintage Star Waggons brand was sold to Hudson Pacific in 2021 as part of a $222 million deal to bulk up its services offering.)
Since that Quixote buy in 2022, which Coleman described this March at a Miami investor conference as “not the best deal we’ve ever done,” major studios have pulled back on content spending, trimmed slates and dialed back episode orders from the days when the likes of HBO Max and Disney+ were in a global subscriber race with Netflix (they lost that race). The number of original series on TV networks and streamers has declined for three straight years since then, with 2025 marking an 11 percent drop in premieres from 2024, per data provider Luminate.
Hudson Pacific is forecasting $21 million to $27 million in potential annualized cost savings from the move to wind down Quixote operations in Atlanta and relocate “select” equipment to Los Angeles and New York. Both New Mexico and Georgia saw dips in filming count and production spend to start 2026, per industry platform ProdPro. Georgia had once been home to Marvel Studios shoots, which have now largely decamped to the U.K.
The moves also reflect the reality of occupancy rates at Hudson Pacific soundstages. The operator’s Hollywood stages are 96 percent leased while Quixote stages “reached 53.3 percent,” the company’s president Mark Lammas said on a late February earnings call, signaling lots of open space at leased soundstages.
In a statement on Tuesday, Lammas added, “Quixote is taking steps to move away from leased soundstages and markets characterized by structural cost or demand disadvantages, which will allow Hudson Pacific to focus financial and operational resources on our office portfolio and higher performing segments of our studio business.”
Those high performing segments include Sunset Studios, where Netflix is the anchor tenant at the ICON, the EPIC and CUE buildings as part of the complex on Sunset Boulevard until 2031. The streaming giant, however, is in final talks to buy the historic Radford Studio Center in Studio City, with speculation that it may look to make the complex its new Los Angeles headquarters. That could open up even more studio soundstage space in Hudson Pacific’s portfolio.
