Daeida Wilcox named it after an estate in Illinois
The name came from a stranger's house. Daeida Wilcox heard about an Illinois estate called Hollywood, liked how it sounded and was superstitious enough about holly bringing luck to use it. Her husband Harvey bought 120 acres on 1 February 1887 and filed the name that August. Hollywood incorporated as its own municipality on 9 November 1903 by a vote of 88 to 77, then gave that up and merged into Los Angeles on 7 February 1910.
Film arrived the same year the city did not survive. D.W. Griffith shot In Old California here in 1910, a seventeen minute short for Biograph. The Nestor Film Company opened the first studio in October 1911. By 1912 the major companies had moved to the Los Angeles area, by the 1920s this was the fifth largest industry in the country, and by the 1930s the studios were turning out 600 films a year.
That century left frontage that still works. The Hollywood Hotel opened in 1902, Whitley Heights went up as a development in 1918, El Cabrillo followed in 1928 from Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Toberman built Villa Las Colinas in Mission Revival in 1922, and the Capitol Records Building has been on Vine Street since 1956. The district sits at 354 feet between Hollywood Boulevard and Melrose, with the hills directly north. For a client the practical value is density: stage space, period exterior and a recognisable skyline inside one permit zone, which is why music videos and brand commercials still book here rather than building it elsewhere.
Paramount: 65 acres, 29 stages, five acres of New York Street
The Studios at Paramount occupies 65 acres and lists 29 sound stages totalling more than 360,000 square feet, plus over 8,000 square feet of office space. The backlot adds five acres of New York Street.
That backlot is the part worth costing out. A city exterior on a private lot needs no street closure, no neighbourhood notification and no negotiation with a business that wants its parking back at four o'clock. You control the traffic because there is none. Night for night is a lighting decision rather than an hours question.
The lot also lists set lighting and grip, transportation, production offices, editorial services, wood moulding, a supply center, sign and graphic services and screening rooms. Its entrance features include the Melrose Gate, park areas and the Paramount Theatre.
Sunset Bronson: ten stages on 4.5 acres, 31 feet overhead
Sunset Bronson Studios is a 4.5-acre site with 10 rental sound stages running up to 23,000 square feet, with 31 ft clear heights. Production offices, a mill, basecamp and a cafe sit on the same footprint.
Tenancy tells you what the stages are built to carry. The site names Netflix, CBS and KTLA as making the lot their Los Angeles home, which is a mix of streaming episodic, network and daily broadcast under one address. Daily broadcast in particular means the lot is set up for the kind of turnaround where a signal has to leave the building on schedule, not when the edit is happy.
Las Palmas gives you 35 feet across 15 acres
Sunset Las Palmas Studios runs 15 acres with sound stages up to 20,000 square feet and 35 ft clear heights, listed individually as Stage 01 through Stage 11. Its stages are smaller in floor area than Bronson's largest and taller overhead, which is a real trade rather than a marketing distinction.
Both lots carry the same on-site support: production offices, mill, basecamp, cafe. Both are operated by Sunset Studios, which runs Bronson, Gower and Las Palmas in Hollywood plus Glenoaks in Los Angeles, holds locations in New York, and owns United Recording. The company states it has been at Hollywood's center for over 100 years.
Clear height is the number that decides the build
Floor area gets quoted first and constrains least. Clear height is what stops a build.
Work the arithmetic from the top down. A lighting grid and its rigging eat the first several feet. A set wall for a room that reads as a normal room wants to stand tall enough that a wide lens does not find the top of it. Anything hanging, a condor, a truss, a large soft source pushed back for falloff, comes out of what is left. Four feet of difference between 31 and 35 sounds trivial written down and is not, once a greenscreen has to clear a two-storey set piece or a jib needs to travel without finding a beam.
The practical version: ask for clear height before square footage, and ask where the grid sits rather than where the roof does.
What a lot supplies that a location never will
A location gives you a real place and a set of constraints you inherit. A lot gives you a controlled box and a supply chain in walking distance.
The difference shows up in the schedule rather than in the frame. Grip and lighting come from the lot instead of a truck that has to be parked, unloaded and re-loaded. A mill means a set change happens on site. Basecamp is on the property, so the walk from talent to set is not a shuttle run. Screening rooms and editorial services mean a rough assembly can be looked at before the crew leaves.
Sunset Studios also publishes a sustainability record that survives a client's procurement questionnaire: the Environmental Media Association Green Seal for Business, 100 percent carbon neutral operations, and over 260kW of on-site solar. Brand teams reporting against emissions targets can cite an operator, not just an intention.
A stage day and a street day are different products
Weather is the clearest split. On a stage the forecast is irrelevant, and a shoot that has to deliver on a fixed date buys certainty rather than square footage. Outside, the day is exposed to light, wind, noise and everyone else on the block.
Cost splits the other way at small scale. A stage day carries a floor: the rental, the power, the crew to light a space that starts black. A two-person interview in an office does not justify it. The line usually sits at the moment control becomes the point, when the look has to match across a campaign, when a set has to exist, or when three setups have to be shot in one day without moving a truck.
Street work in Hollywood runs on City of Los Angeles rules, covered in full on the Los Angeles page.
Who books a Hollywood stage day
Labels and managers book stages for performance work because playback, multiple looks and a hard wrap all fit in one controlled space, and a music video that needs three worlds in twelve hours needs walls that move. Brand and marketing teams book them for commercial work where colour has to hold across a campaign shot over weeks. Event producers book stages for audience-facing captures and streamed sessions, which is live coverage with a controlled load-in rather than a venue's freight lift. Property and development marketing is the least obvious of the four and turns up anyway, since a developer film often needs an interview environment and a set that stands in for a finished interior long before the building is finished.
The hard numbers on this page, 29 stages, 31 ft, 35 ft, 65 acres, 4.5 acres, 15 acres, are the ones to take into a scout. Studio 47 works the whole county from Westlake Village; see the Los Angeles County overview or the neighbouring Studio City district.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit to film in Hollywood?
Yes, and it comes from FilmLA, because Hollywood is a district of the City of Los Angeles rather than its own city. Stage work on a lot is different: that is a rental agreement with the lot, not a street permit. We handle whichever applies. If the plan is a stage day, book the space first, because availability decides the date.
Which Hollywood studio has the most sound stages?
Paramount, at 29 sound stages across a 65 acre lot and more than 360,000 square feet of stage space. Sunset Bronson lists 10 rental stages on 4.5 acres. Sunset Las Palmas lists Stage 01 through Stage 11 across 15 acres. Those are the counts each operator publishes for its own site. Studio 47 takes those published numbers into a scout.
How much clear height does a sound stage need?
Enough for the lighting grid, the set walls and anything hanging, in that order. Sunset Bronson publishes 31 ft clear heights, Sunset Las Palmas 35 ft. A single-camera interview never notices the four foot difference. A two-storey build, a large overhead soft source or a greenscreen that has to clear a set piece notices immediately. Ask for clear height before square footage.
Is it cheaper to shoot on a stage or on location in Hollywood?
Location, at small scale. A stage day carries a floor: the rental, the power, and the crew to light a space that starts black. A two-person interview does not justify it. A stage earns that floor when the look has to match across a campaign shot over weeks, or when a set has to exist at all. Studio 47 costs both routes before booking.
Can we shoot a city street scene without closing a street?
Yes, on a backlot. The Studios at Paramount lists five acres of New York Street inside its 65 acre lot. Shooting a street exterior on private ground removes the closure, the neighbourhood notification and the negotiation with a business that wants its parking back at four o'clock, and it holds the block steady across several days.
What is on site at a Hollywood studio lot?
Production offices, a mill, basecamp and a cafe are listed at both Sunset Bronson and Sunset Las Palmas. Paramount adds set lighting and grip, transportation, editorial services, wood moulding, a supply center, sign and graphic services and screening rooms. The practical effect is fewer trucks on the street and a rough assembly that can be viewed before the crew leaves.
Does Studio 47 work in Hollywood?
Yes. Studio 47 is 36 miles from Hollywood via US-101 south, and works both sides of the district: stage days for labels booking performance work and brand teams who need colour to hold across a campaign, and street days for event producers and property developers under the City of Los Angeles rules.