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  "path": "/bad-robot-move",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-03T16:39:02.000Z",
  "site": "https://nofilmschool.com",
  "tags": [
    "Bad robot",
    "Los angeles",
    "Industry trends",
    "Production trends",
    "Industry news",
    "J.j. abrams",
    "Hollywood Reporter",
    "The Rise of Skywalker",
    "LA production is still down nearly 20% from its five-year average",
    "soundstages that were once impossible to book are sitting empty",
    "still struggle to compete",
    "the cost and bureaucratic friction of actually filming in Los Angeles",
    "Where is Hollywood moving?"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nBad Robot, the production company J.J. Abrams founded in 1999, is closing its Los Angeles office.\n\nAbrams is likely relocating to New York, and the company is reorganizing as it moves with him, per Hollywood Reporter.\n\nBad Robot has always been one of the more interesting companies to watch, precisely because its development slate skewed strange. For every _LOST_ or _Cloverfield_ that made it out, there were dozens of weirder, funkier projects that never did. The fact that the company is shrinking rather than doubling down on that kind of swinging-for-the-fences filmmaking feels like a symptom of something larger.\n\nSo it's a notable moment, not just for Abrams personally, but as a signal of how much the industry's relationship with Los Angeles has shifted.\n\nBad Robot sold its longtime Santa Monica headquarters for $31 million last November, and the company had already shed much of its staff in the years prior. At its peak, the building held hundreds of employees, including the in-house visual effects company Kelvin Optical.\n\nThe company leaves behind a real legacy in its old home. From _Alias_ to _LOST_ , _Fringe_ , _Cloverfield_ , and two _Star Wars_ films, Bad Robot was one of the defining genre production companies of the 2000s and 2010s. Its last major feature was _The Rise of Skywalker_ in 2019, and a more recent HBO Max series, _Duster_ , which Abrams co-created, was canceled after one season.\n\nBad Robot still has projects in the pipeline. There's an Abrams-directed film called _The Great Beyond_ , due Nov. 13, and David Robert Mitchell's _The End of Oak Street_ arrives Aug. 16, both from Warner Bros. The company also has the 2028 Dr. Seuss adaptation _Oh, the Places You'll Go_ in the works.\n\nWe've covered the slow drain of production from Los Angeles extensively here at No Film School.\n\nLA production is still down nearly 20% from its five-year average, TV shoot days have been cut roughly in half, and soundstages that were once impossible to book are sitting empty.\n\nThe reasons aren't mysterious. California's tax incentives, even after Gov. Newsom's push to expand them to $750 million annually, still struggle to compete with what the U.K., Georgia, and Canada are offering.\n\nAnd the cost and bureaucratic friction of actually filming in Los Angeles has made producers increasingly reluctant to set up shop there.\n\nBad Robot's departure isn't a production fleeing for tax credits. After all, this is a creative office, not a shoot. But it's still another bump on a rocky road. When one of Hollywood's most storied companies packs up after 25 years in Santa Monica, it lands differently than another show decamping to Atlanta.\n\nWhere is Hollywood moving? Everywhere and nowhere. New York, other states, other countries. The creative industry is more distributed than it's ever been, and the infrastructure (the crews, the stages, the institutional knowledge) is slowly migrating with it.\n\nLet us know what you think.",
  "title": "J.J. Abrams is Moving Bad Robot Out of L.A."
}