SANTA CLARITA, California — Inside a massive sound stage housing a set from the Amazon Prime Video series “Fallout,” writer and producer Jonathan Nolan made a strong case for the power of tax incentives in keeping major productions on American soil.
The hit series, a high-budget adaptation of a popular post-apocalyptic videogame, filmed its first season in New York. California managed to draw the production westward for Season 2 by offering $25 million in tax rebates.
“If the tax credit wasn’t here, it would be a non-starter and we wouldn’t be able to be here,” Nolan said, speaking from a folding lawn chair on the show’s “Vault” set — a fictional underground shelter featuring the series’ distinctive retro-futuristic design.
Nolan has been an outspoken champion for California’s film incentive program, actively lobbying for the state to approve $750 million in tax rebates aimed at drawing more film and television projects back to the region. He even brought state lawmakers onto the set last year to demonstrate firsthand how actors and skilled workers would benefit.
The show stayed in California for its third season as well, supported by $42 million in tax credits applied to a $166.3 million production budget. According to the California Film Commission, the production employed nearly 600 crew members and 30 actors as a result.
Nolan noted that industry professionals had grown used to traveling abroad to shoot in cities like London, Budapest, or Sydney, rarely stopping to consider what that trend was doing to Hollywood back home.
“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.
Entertainment industry employment has been on a downward slide since reaching its peak in late 2022, leaving fewer openings for actors, writers, and the many behind-the-scenes workers — including carpenters, costume designers, camera operators, and catering staff — who depend on productions for their livelihoods.
California has felt the pain particularly sharply, losing 17,234 industry jobs between 2019 and 2023, according to data from the Milken Institute. Researchers found that falling TV advertising revenue and slowing growth in streaming subscriptions pushed studios to seek out cheaper locations for their projects.
The situation in Hollywood’s sound stages tells a similar story. Occupancy rates have dropped to 62% in the first half of 2025, down from near-full capacity in 2016, according to Film LA, the nonprofit group that manages filming coordination across greater Los Angeles.
“That 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,” Nolan said. “So, I think the rebate was essential in bringing us back.”
Actor Walton Goggins, who portrays a dual role on the series — a pre-war Hollywood actor known for Western films named Cooper Howard, and a post-apocalyptic bounty hunter called The Ghoul — 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.”
