On Sunday evening, President Donald Trump's announcement via social media was to “start the process of setting 100% tariffs” on films produced abroad, causing chaos and shock in the US entertainment industry and abroad, warning filmmakers would not do anything to save such extreme taxation and what the president called the “dying” film industry.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump had problems with the “incentives” that encouraged filmmakers to film projects outside the US. It suggests that the industry, centered around Hollywood, is not only “devastated”, but is simply suggesting that it is travelling to other countries to produce films and embedded in the final product.
“This is a coordinated effort by other countries and therefore a threat to national security,” Trump said. “It's message and propaganda, along with everything else!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggests that the administration is moving to implement the president's plan, writing in his own social media post that “we're working on it.”
The majority of American films are produced primarily in the US, but offer jobs to actors, editors and other production staff.
Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom is currently working on the impact of foreign tax incentives on Southern California film professionals, including makeup artists, camera operators, electricians and other middle-class workers, on these foreign tax incentives by asking studios to take tax credits to film locally. The state legislature is currently considering the proposal.
“Posting tariffs on films filmed outside the US will increase the cost of shooting, studios lobbying on exhibits to raise ticket prices, audiences will skip the theatre, and then… you can see where this is heading.”
But by “setting 100% tariffs on every film that comes to our country, which is produced on foreign land,” film industry veterans said Trump would not succeed in bringing production work back to the US, but would make it impossible to produce everything but the biggest budget films.
“This is not the effect it has,” an industry expert said.deadline. “It destroys a lot of work from producer assistants to writers to post-production because it can't fully produce low-level and medium-sized productions. Plus, it reduces the amount of large budget content created because the production costs are higher and the studios can't make much money.”
Officials at US film companies that produce domestic and internationally communicated films. deadline That international film dealer would be less likely to buy US films under Trump's new tariff plan.
“It affects domestic distribution transactions, but it also affects stock players who have film money. “We can't make a film for the same budget, actors are not paid the same fees, and the list continues. Simply put, they'll destroy the independent sector.”
The UK-based producer said that exactly how the proposed policy will be enforced was unclear from Trump's social media post. deadline That “all of the major independent distributors would all go out of business if they were them.”
A source close to the White House saidPolitics The customs policy was born from actor John Voight, a powerful supporter of Trump along with Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, and was named one of Trump's “special ambassadors.”
deadlineLast week, Voight met with representatives from Hollywood studios and unions to report that he was discussing plans to revive the film industry, where “federal tax incentives” are expected to be a key component.
Voight's fellow ambassador Gibson is one of the Hollywood players who could be directly affected by Trump's proposed tariffs. His movie, sequel The passion of ChristFilming is scheduled to begin in Italy this summer.
“Posting tariffs on films filmed outside the US will increase the cost of shooting, studios lobbying exhibitors to raise ticket prices, audiences skip the theatre, and then… you know where this is heading,” producer Randy Greenberg wrote in a LinkedIn post after Trump announced the plans.
Washington Post Trump reported that he could rely on provisions of the 1962 Trade Act, which he had previously used to impose tariffs on goods. The law gives the Department of Commerce for 270 days to complete an investigation into alleged national security threats created by a particular import.
“Other countries have stole our film industry,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “If they're not willing to make a movie in the US, we should have tariffs on the films that come in.”
in Guardianfilm editor Andrew Pulver writes that Trump's plan is intended to destroy the “international film industry.”
The effects of tariffs can be dramatic. Recent figures from the British Film Institute (BFI) show that in 2024 £4.8 billion ($6.37 billion) of production costs for British film and high-end television came from international sources. In Australia, the film industry is expected to lose up to $767 million. Designed to increase capacity and therefore revenue, the UK Studio Building programme can feel cold almost immediately. And the impact on US domestic industries is projected to be at a disadvantage as production costs could rise without overseas tax incentives and wipe out mid-level projects.
Despite Trump's claim that the industry is “dying,” the US film industry exported $15.3 billion in 2023 with $22.6 billion in trade surplus and $22.6 billion, according to the Film Association's latest economic impact report.
Executives at US distribution companies expressed their hopes deadline Trump's threat would encourage “desperately need to increase tax incentives for US states in place as soon as possible.”
“We can't see his target here,” they said, “other than confusion and distraction.”
