Warner Bros. Opens Ranch Lot Studios In Major Expansion

The entrance to Warner Bros.' Ranch Lot Studios in Burbank, California. Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.‘ The Ranch is officially open for business.

Less than a mile away from the iconic main lot, the Ranch is home to 16 soundstages, a construction workshop, office building and production support facilities across a nearly 1 million square foot campus. It opened earlier this year and has drawn shooting commitments from four shows. All of the stages are have been certified by the California Film Commission, meaning productions can draw subsidies by filming at the property.

The expansion augments Warner Bros. Discovery’s position as among the largest soundstage operators in the region. Combined with the 30 stages on the main lot and four at the Burbank Studios facility, the company manages 50 stages. In a tour of the property with The Hollywood Reporter, executives spoke about how The Ranch will help boost physical production for the studio’s film and TV operations. The campus is positioned to be a key piece of those designs if Paramount completes its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery. “David Ellison has talked openly about a continuing commitment to production,” says Simon Robinson, president of global experiences and studio operations. “He needs real estate for that.”

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As of now, the plan is to consolidate shooting whenever possible on WBD stages. “We’re still shooting more things on other peoples’ stages than we’re shooting on our own,” Robinson adds. “The ability to shoot content in our own facilities is important.” He notes the shift isn’t a top-down company directive but rather a recognition that it makes sense to shoot productions under the WBD umbrella on property it oversees. Warner Bros. stage operators have increasingly been fielding calls by showrunners in the WBD family, who’ve been receptive to filming on company stages.

The opening comes amid record-low soundstage occupancy rates in Los Angeles amid a tit-for-tat race among regions across the world to host Hollywood, according to a report issued Tuesday by FilmLA, the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and county. Seventeen studios that operate the majority of stages in L.A. posted average occupancy rates of 62 percent in the first half of last year, down from 90 percent in 2022 and 69 percent in 2023.

Anecdotally, however, some studio lots have bucked that trend. One example: Warner Bros. reported 91 percent occupancy rates for its stages in 2025.

The Mill is a purpose-built workshop space offering over 40,000 square feet of construction space.

“We were at highs effectively for all of last year,” Robinson says. “The reality is that a lot of the time, someone asks if we have three stages and we can’t instantly says yes. It’s a good problem to have.”

Worthe Real Estate Group and investment firm Stockbridge in 2019 announcement a deal to acquire the Ranch lot property. Under the arrangement, Warner Bros. is the sole long-term tenant. Some historied props, including the iconic fountain form the Friends opening credit, was moved to the main lot.

Toward the end of last year, the Warner Bros. lot hit peak capacity — with shows like Abbott Elementary and The Studio filming — and had to turn people away.

Now, productions looking for top-tier stages will have the option of shooting on the Ranch. The campus has four blocks of four stages each ranging from 15,000 to 25,000 square feet. Bells and whistles include concrete floors, sky-high clearance (45 feet for some stages), massive second story walkways to accommodate rigging needs, heaters at every corner, dimmer rooms and high-capacity silent air conditioning, among other things.

The price per square foot to shoot on a stage at the Ranch is the same as the main lot. It’s better-suited for shows that are partially shooting on-location and don’t need a backlot. Huge basecamps can be set up right outside the stages.

In the production support buildings, situated across three floors and adjacent to each stages, there are dressing rooms equipped with private facilities and hair and make-up rooms, plus office and costume suites. The office building offers five floors of flexible work space that can be immediately adjusted to accommodate teams of various sizes as production ebbs and flows. It’s home to a Looney Tunes-themed cafeteria (visit Bug’s Bistro!) and outdoor event space. The facility has a distinct 70s aesthetic, with black marbling and slat wood wall paneling to compliment burnt orange and gold hues.

Construction crew for The Studio broke in The Mill, a purpose-built workshop space offering over 40,000 square feet of construction space, earlier this year.

Joining the Seth Rogen-led series on the main lot in 2025: Euphoria, Latitude, The Comeback and I Love LA. HBO shows have typically shot elsewhere but are increasingly filming on Warner Bros. stages as its parent looks to keep money earmarked for stage use in-house. If a show is going to get a greenlight, production execs’ first call is to WBD stage operators.

“When WBD has open stages, it makes sense to have HBO here,” says an exec. “We want to take care of our own shows first.”