Bold Growth Plans at Hollywood Studios

Years into a slump in the local production of movies and television shows, several of the largest California-based studios are laying plans to build sound stages, postproduction facilities and offices in what might become the most aggressive growth spurt in recent Hollywood memory.

Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount all have large, long-term expansion plans on the books. The construction would follow recent face-lifts and incremental growth on and near the lots owned by the three other major studios — Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers. The resulting transformation would seem to put a glow of health on an industry that was bruised by a writers strike in 2007, then battered by recession, piracy and digital competition — yet remains optimistic about filmed entertainment and its production in and around Los Angeles. Some observers are puzzled.