Production Starts Up 79% as April Holds the 2026 Pace

The May edition of the Sohonet Screen Production Index records 86 new scripted productions entering principal photography in April, up 79% on April 2025 and within 4% of the value we projected last month. H1 2026 is now expected to come in 37% ahead of H1 2025. The trajectory established through Q1 has carried into April, although the forward outlook has eased slightly from where it stood a month ago.

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Q2 Outlook Trims, July Settles

Our Q2 2026 projection now stands 35% above Q2 2025 and 13% below the 2022 reference point, compared with +38% and −12% in last month's report. The softening is concentrated in May, where the count of confirmed starts has come in modestly lower than projected. July, which last month read as an outlier on the high side, has settled to a more plausible figure as more data has matured. The overall H1 view is broadly unchanged.

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Two Stories Worth Watching

After a strong March in which the US secured 46% of new productions tracked, April saw that share drop to 30%, with California's domestic share falling from 46% to 21%. The UK rebounded sharply, taking 29% of the global count in April against 16% in March. Whether this reflects a sustained UK pickup or a short-period swing will be clearer over the next two cycles. Within the US, Georgia recorded its strongest month since late 2024, with its share of US smoothed spend climbing from 6% in December to 10% in April. We will be exploring the Georgia picture in more depth in next month's report.

At the studio level, Disney recorded its quietest April in recent memory, with 7 starts and a combined budget of $150M, well below its 2024 pace. The studio's confirmed forward calendar is more familiar, with Alien: Earth in May, Black Panther 3 in June, and Avengers 6 in August, suggesting a more typical tentpole cadence resumes from here.

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Smoothed Spend Reaches Late-2024 Levels

Our smoothed budget measure, which spreads the value of each production across its active shoot period, rose 9% in April on top of an 8% rise in March. It is now up 20% on April 2025 and at its highest reading since late 2024. We expect it to continue rising through H1 and into H2 2026, supported by a relatively dense forward calendar.

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The Sohonet Screen Production Index tracks scripted, live-action productions entering principal photography each month from major studios and production companies across the US, UK, and Canada. A free two-page Snapshot is published monthly; the full Insight report, including regional breakdowns, studio analysis, and forward pipeline data, is available by subscription.

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[Learn more about the Screen Production Index]

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