Carry-On was originally planned to be the first film resulting from the June 2021 deal between Amblin Partners and Netflix to produce multiple films per year for the streaming service.

The screenplay's initial draft was written by T. J. Fixman, a former Insomniac Games writer, with Michael Green contributing another draft; only Fixman received screenplay credit while Green got an off-screen 'Additional Literary Material' credit.

Writer T. J. Fixman intended the film to be an illustration of the classic trolley problem.

Although the film is set at Los Angeles International Airport, only the exterior shots of the theme building and control tower were actually filmed at LAX; all terminal, concourse, and restricted area scenes were shot at the decommissioned terminal of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from September 2022 to January 2023, on an estimated budget of $47 million.

Fixman received extensive expert advice about airport security procedures but deliberately took artistic license with TSA protocols for the sake of the story.

Ten days after its Netflix release, Carry-On had 97 million views, and by January 2025 it became the fifth-most-watched Netflix English-language film of all time with more than 149.5 million views.

The TSA itself noted inaccuracies in the film but praised the filmmakers for portraying a TSA officer in a heroic light.