UK Film Studio Sector 2025: Expansion, Setbacks and Shifts

Part of Cinematic Tourism’s continuing series tracking studio infrastructure and regional screen investment.

The first half of 2025 has been a busy period for film-studio developments in the UK. It’s been a mixed bag — good news on one hand with major site upgrades, contrasted with projects slowed by rising costs and planning delays. For those in the film industry and in destinations seeking to attract productions while keeping track of future capacity, the picture that emerges is one of studio plans under pressure, amid questions about the impact of the global slowdown in production activity.

For those working across the UK’s screen and visitor economies — from film offices to destination-marketing teams — this piece is part of a continuing series of periodic snapshots tracking how the UK film studio landscape is evolving. Cinematic Tourism will track site expansions, pauses and policy shifts to help those in the industry stay informed about studio infrastructure investments and emerging opportunities. Over time, it will look at developments across different regions, including Europe, North America and Asia.

The UK remains one of the world’s leading production hubs, attracting major projects drawn by its world-class crews, facilities and costs. The record-setting year of 2022 — when film and high-end TV production spend reached £6.27 billion — still looms large over the sector. According to the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit, spending fell to £4.23 billion in 2023, 32 percent down on 2022 but close to pre-pandemic levels, before rebounding by 31 percent in 2024 as confidence and inward investment began to recover.

The wider slowdown has inevitably put pressure on studio ambitions, forcing some to rethink expansion plans while others argue that the need for new space remains undiminished.

Industry Context: The Changing UK Studio Landscape

A snapshot of the pressures and growth shaping the UK’s film-studio landscape from 2022 to 2025.

The pressure to expand studio capacity has been a defining theme across the UK’s production sector. According to Knight Frank’s UK Film & TV Studios Report 2022, an additional 2.6 million ft² of stage space will be needed by 2028 to keep pace with local and international demand. Around 43% of that new capacity is expected to be concentrated in southern England, where also planning pressures remain highest.

Recent years have seen major studio investments across the UK, from Sky Studios Elstree (opened 2022) and Longcross Studios in Surrey (under redevelopment since 2021) to the expanded stages at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, announced in 2023. The move is toward larger, “campus-style” facilities that blend sound stages with virtual-production spaces. Virtual production facilities now account for roughly one in five new UK studio developments, according to the British Film Commission.

Samantha Perahia, Head of Production UK at the British Film Commission on this new style of facilities, “We’ve seen a trend for more production-style hubs, more campus-style studios where there’s a mix of large stages and space for virtual production.”

Studio Ulster — announced in 2024 and officially opened in June 2025 — exemplifies this new campus-style model, combining large-scale stages, research facilities and training space.

Not everyone supports continued expansion. Development on green-belt land — including the proposed Hertsmere Studios site near Borehamwood, the Pinewood Studios expansion in Buckinghamshire, and plans around Longcross Studios in Surrey — has sparked local opposition, with campaigners warning against overdevelopment near residential and environmentally protected areas. Funding pressures also continue to remain, from new entrants struggling to launch to established sites balancing ambition with rising costs.

Sunderland – UK
Plans for a new film studio in the North East of England are on hold for now as one of the major backers pulled out, whilst those behind it seek new backers. The Crown Works Studios in Sunderland is being positioned as a new hub for the TV and film industry, to help attract major projects to this part of the country.

The other backer of the project, Fullwell Entertainment, the global entertainment company, has said it will work with Sunderland Council to ensure the project continues and source other private funding. The UK government committed to providing £25 million and the local Sunderland City Council committed up to £125 million.

Work on the site started earlier this year and the plans for The Crown Works Studios is to create a world-class film and high-end production facility with 20 premium sound stages, and billed as being one of the best equipped complexes for filmmaking in Europe.

On the news of the founding backers pulling out the UK government recognised the importance of this for the local economy and job creation as well as an important base for the overall industry, with the Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy saying, “great jobs and growth to the North East of England and help our amazing film industry thrive”. When the plans were first announced it was stated that the studio would generate £334 million for the local economy every year.

Hartlepool’s Plan for New Studio
Another plan has been submitted again in the North East of England for the expansion of Northern Studios, the only large-scale studio complex in the area, with the creation of a film and TV production village. They are hoping to boost the north-east of England’s film-making sector through the creation of the village which would see them taking over a number of abandoned buildings surrounding the existing Northern Studio, and for these to be renovated to create pre and post production facilities.

If planning permission is approved, work is likely to begin in a matter of months. The £33.5m plan is being led by Hartlepool Borough Council and Hartlepool Development Corporation (HDC), and is also supported by The Northern School of Art and North East Screen. Recent productions in the region include: Vera, Gentleman Jack, Victoria, George Gently, The Dumping Ground, Ambulance, Driving School, I Daniel Blake, 1917, Harry Potter, Transformers, and Avengers Endgame.

Bottle Studios Bristol
The only council owned film and TV studio in the UK has had plans for its controversial plan to sell the site shelved for now after the council failed to secure an agreement. The council had, it is reported, selected a preferred bidder in the last few months but were not able to conclude an agreement.

The news has been welcomed by critics, most notably Equity, in what they saw as rushed plans and with no proper consultation. This follows months of campaigning from Equity around the sale ever since plans became known in autumn 2024, and they welcomed the news that Bristol City Council have made this U-turn. The union was concerned about the impact on jobs in the South West city and impact on the economy. This led to over 1,000 emails being sent by members against the decision, concerned about their own livelihoods.

This was backed up by data from the Bristol Film Office which revealed that the economic impact of filming at Bristol locations and The Bottle Yard Studios rose 55% in 2024-25 to £46.6 million.
Bristol has in recent years developed into one of the most filmed cities in the UK since the opening of the Studios and its close partnership work with the Bristol Film Office ensures that locations across the city regularly feature in primetime TV shows and feature films.

Largest Studio in Ulster
An ambitious partnership between Belfast Harbour, Ulster University and Northern Ireland Screen, to make Northern Ireland compete on a global stage has seen the launch of Studio Ulster. The studio is being billed as the world’s most advanced film and TV virtual production studio stretching over 75,000 square feet. Studio Ulster secured a £72 million investment as part of its launch, with a third of the funding through the Belfast Region City Deal. Studio Ulster is set up to host large scale production including TV and feature documentaries, as well as a pitch for commercial level studio productions needing state-of-the-art virtual productions, advanced in-camera visual effects and CGI.

The facilities are set up to support productions of all levels from high end TV and blockbusters, to animation and triple A game development. Recently the live action How to Train Your Dragon, starring Gerard Butler, was filmed in Northern Ireland and other productions such as Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil, starring Charlize Theron and Laurence Fishburne, filmed at Belfast Harbour Studios. Once fully operational, the site is projected to contribute over £100 million annually to Northern Ireland’s screen economy.

New Glasgow Facility Backed by Los Angeles Animation Firm
Los Angeles-based Halon Entertainment has announced plans to invest £28m in a new Glasgow studio facility. Drawn to Scotland being a centre of creative technology and at the forefront of video game innovation for the last two decades. Being situated in Glasgow places it in a city that is home to a third of the UK’s regional tech firms working in the creative industry. With their new Glasgow studio, Halon will be better able to support global productions from both sides of the Atlantic and is set to create up to 250 jobs over the next three years.

Halon has worked on films including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Suicide Squad. Alongside its film output it has worked on video games including Fortnite, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, is also providing Halon with advisory services and has so far contributed £3.9 million of funding towards the overall project costs.

Pinewood Considers Scale Back of Expansion Plans
Due to a reduction in global film and high-end television production and the rising costs of productions, Pinewood, the studio where James Bond, Star Wars, The Shining, and Indiana Jones were filmed, has relooked at their initial expansion plans, and is looking to switch focus to a £1 billion investment instead in data centres. Back in 2022, Pinewood submitted a planning application for expanding the world famous studio by 1.4 million square feet and through The Pinewood South Studios scheme delivering 20 purpose-built sound stages as part of its expanded Screen Hub. At the time of the announcement this was celebrated as a positive sign for the UK film industry and for the wider creative industry, creating 8000 jobs and adding around £640m ($760M) per year to the economy.

Instead, Pinewood is pivoting away from just studio spaces as part of a £1 billion investment, with a focus to build data centres as it looks to diversify its revenue streams. Whilst it is still planning to add more studios, there are no details on how much this will now be. The focus on data centres is addressing the challenge in the UK to meet demand and rapid advances in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. “The emergence of AI has been recognised by the Government as a strategic opportunity in which the UK could become one of the world leaders,” Pinewood states in its application.

David Conway, Chief Executive Officer at the Pinewood Group on revising their plans for the studio expansion: “The reduction in global content production, combined with rising construction costs and business rates, triggered a review of our existing planning consent and we believe the revised proposals provide a credible alternative.”

Greystoke in Holyport Gets Rejected
Not all proposed developments have received the same level of support from those in power and local authorities. Whilst the focus has been on new plans for studios, expansions and funding issues and broadly the UK seems to be supportive of the creation of world class facilities it is not always so clear cut. A plan by Greystoke Land to build the UK’s largest film and TV studios has been rejected by the local council that was worried about the impact of new major development, and on the whole not supportive of the argument of its benefit that they argued is crying out for more space especially for high end content. In its proposal Greystoke cited the acute shortage and the jobs being created from such a big new studio; ‘This has led to an acute shortage of studio space, suitable for producing high-end content in the South East, particularly West London.’

The government rejected an appeal on the grounds that the needs could be shouldered by existing industry infrastructure at present and wasn’t worth the loss to the green land it would be built on. The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government in its rejection of the appeal also agreed with the council on the ‘potential harm to the green belt’ for not supporting the appeal. Greystoke Land in its appeal to the government said the council had “exaggerated” the harm to the green belt and ignored its economic benefits. So wider concerns about protecting lands came head to head with what seemed like major infrastructure plans to support the UK film and TV industry, especially in this lucrative part of the country between London and the M4 corridor. Prime locations for UK big budget productions and blockbusters that want access to London and its supporting services for the film industry, the airport for quick access in and out of the country to other parts of Europe, North America and beyond. Also on the west side of London these studios are able to zip along the M4 corridor to other parts of the south and west of the country.

Key Takeaways

• Studios are evolving – The UK’s production base is shifting from standalone stages to larger, campus-style sites that combine production, training, and virtual technology under one roof.

• Growth has slowed but not stopped – Some expansion plans have paused or scaled back, but investment continues in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the North East — showing steady regional momentum even as the wider market cools..

Infrastructure is spreading – Despite setbacks, new and upgraded studios are giving more parts of the UK the facilities needed to host high-end productions, helping location teams work closer to state-of-the-art sound stages and support services.