Is "Lollywood" the new Hollywood?
London is ready for its close-up
At a recent London & Partners event in Santa Monica, one point came through clearly: London is no longer just a filming destination. It is becoming a global media power center.
New data suggests London is hosting nearly as many productions as Los Angeles in 2025, driven by major investment, world-class crews, and rapidly expanding studio infrastructure.
Globally, LA still ranks number one in media and entertainment. But London now looks firmly established as number two.
A few signals stand out:
Investor density: London now has more media and gaming investors than LA (1,653 vs. 1,092).
Company base: The number of film and video businesses is approaching parity (LA ~18.8k, London ~17.8k).
A full-stack ecosystem: Capital, creativity, and technology are increasingly concentrated in one place. Hollywood remains the benchmark, but London is quickly emerging as a parallel engine for the future of storytelling.
What matters here is not just production volume, but where the next infrastructure of storytelling is being assembled.
Los Angeles remains the cultural and commercial capital of global entertainment, and Hollywood still sets the standard. But London is no longer simply chasing it. It is building alongside it.
So, is “Lollywood” the new Hollywood?
Maybe not as a replacement. But as a second global capital for storytelling, it is becoming harder to ignore.