The British film industry experienced an unprecedented financial boom in 2025, with Hollywood's deep pockets fuelling a record-breaking £2.8 billion spend on production within the UK. This remarkable figure, representing a 23% year-on-year surge, was largely propelled by major blockbuster projects filming on British soil.
Inward Investment Dominates the Landscape
According to the British Film Institute (BFI), which has meticulously tracked production expenditure data since 2002, a staggering 91% of this record film spend was attributed to "inward investment." This term refers to capital flowing from studios and companies headquartered outside the United Kingdom. In practical terms, more than £2.5 billion of the total £2.78 billion spent originated from US-based Hollywood studios and streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon, marking a substantial 30% increase from the previous year.
Blockbuster Productions Drive the Surge
The significant uptick in expenditure was directly linked to a slate of high-profile films choosing the UK as their production base. Notable projects contributing to this boom included the much-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, featuring Robert Downey Jr., Super Girl, and a series of four biopics focusing on each member of the legendary band, The Beatles. These large-scale productions provided a substantial boost to the local economy and creative sector.
Parallel Boom in High-End Television
The financial windfall was not confined to the silver screen. Investment in high-end British television productions, defined as shows with a budget of at least £1 million per episode, also saw healthy growth. Spending in this sector rose by over 7% year-on-year to reach £4 billion. Once again, US streamers dominated, with platforms like Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, and Disney+ accounting for a commanding 80% of the total television production spend. Hit series such as Bridgerton, Slow Horses, Outlander, and The Thursday Murder Club were among the major beneficiaries of this investment.
In contrast, spending by domestic UK broadcasters, including ITV, Sky, Channel 4, and Channel 5, saw a modest increase to £688 million. This followed a concerning drop to a five-year low in 2024, indicating a fragile recovery for homegrown broadcast financing.
Clouds on the Horizon: The Netflix Factor
Despite the vibrant performance in 2025, which saw total combined spending on UK-made films and high-end TV rise by 13% to £6.8 billion, storm clouds are gathering. A significant threat to future growth stems from strategic shifts by major US players, influenced by political and economic pressures stateside.
Netflix's co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, publicly stated this week that the company is actively pulling projects back to the United States. This move is strategically designed to appease US lawmakers who are scrutinising Netflix's proposed $80 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). Sarandos explicitly linked this repatriation of production to competitive new tax credit schemes in locations like New Jersey, where Netflix is developing a major studio complex.
"Since that incentive passed we had 11 projects, seven of which were slated for the UK and were pulled back into New Jersey," Sarandos testified before the US Senate's antitrust subcommittee. He argued that these US incentives have made domestic production so competitive that "there is no reason to go overseas for film production." This policy shift, aligned with broader political pushes in the US to boost domestic manufacturing and jobs, directly challenges the UK's attractive production incentives and poses a clear risk to future inward investment levels.
An Uncertain Future for UK Production
The record-breaking spend of 2025 therefore presents a paradox: a celebration of current success shadowed by genuine concerns for the immediate future. While the UK has successfully positioned itself as a global hub for major film and television production, its heavy reliance on volatile foreign investment—particularly from US studios responding to domestic political agendas—leaves it vulnerable. The industry now faces a critical period, watching to see if the pull of the UK's skilled workforce and infrastructure can continue to compete with increasingly attractive financial incentives being rolled out across the Atlantic.
