Associated Press
President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S.
In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries “are offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
It wasn’t immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.
Incentive programs for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom.
Yet Trump’s tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products. And in movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelming dominate the domestic marketplace.
China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, it earned just $20.9 million.
In New Zealand, where successive governments have offered rebates and incentives in recent years to draw Hollywood films to the country, the film industry has generated billions of dollars in tourism revenue driven by the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films, which featured the country’s pristine and scenic vistas. More recently, the blockbuster “Minecraft” movie was filmed entirely in New Zealand, and U.S. productions in 2023 delivered $1.3 billion New Zealand dollars ($777 million) to the country in return for NZ$200 million in subsidies, according to government figures.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was awaiting more details of Trump’s measures before commenting on them but would continue to pitch to filmmakers abroad, including in India’s Bollywood. “We’ve got an absolutely world class industry,” he said. “This is the best place to make movies, period, in the world.”
The Motion Picture Association, which represents major U.S. film studios and streaming services, didn’t immediately respond to messages Sunday evening.
The MPA’s data shows how much Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. According to the MPA, the American movies produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023.
Trump, a Republican, has made good on the “tariff man” label he gave himself years ago, slapping new taxes on goods made in countries around the globe. That includes a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened.
By unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump has exerted extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions. There are tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, set to be subject to new tariffs in the weeks ahead.
Trump has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas.
Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACK — BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall production in the U.S. was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which tracks production.
The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.
The problem is especially acute in California. In the greater Los Angeles area, production last year was down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, second only to 2020, during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed expanding California’s Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million.
Other U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago and San Francisco have also used aggressive tax incentives to lure film and TV productions. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which Georgia and New Mexico offer.
“Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. “If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.”
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
17 comments
ScienceBLVR
May 5, 2025 at 8:08 am
Trump’s continuing descent into lunacy and chaos…
Sing it Barry..
Yeah my blood’s so mad feels like coagulating
I’m sitting here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth it knows no regulation
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
And you tell me
Over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Bill
May 5, 2025 at 8:10 am
Dementia Don. For all the complaining about Biden, it seems like we have another senile old man in the WH.
Foghorn Leghorn
May 5, 2025 at 8:59 am
Trump took a cognitive test and passed. Biden passed on cognitive tests. We all know why.
Bill
May 5, 2025 at 10:51 am
“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” – yep, he’s a genius all right and the test proved it.
Foghorn Leghorn
May 5, 2025 at 12:27 pm
That was 45. He is now 47 and took the test. Get with the times. 46 did not take one. Again, we all know why.
Trump Poops his Pants
May 5, 2025 at 11:17 am
He passed. Sure, he did.
If you believe even one word that comes out of this administration your obviously even dumber than Trump is.
Foghorn Leghorn
May 5, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Yet you believed all the BS from the White House Press, the media, the DNC, and others that Joe was okay. I will never forget the look on his face when he stepped out of the car at Normandy last year. Dude had no idea where he was.
Bill
May 5, 2025 at 2:00 pm
You seem awfully desperate make Trump look less like a clown by ragging on Biden, who is not the President anymore. I guess you just have nothing good to say in Trump’s defense which presumably means you think he’s a clown like the rest of us do.
Dr. Franklin Waters
May 5, 2025 at 3:54 pm
Look how fast you went into the Whataboutism to go back to bashing a guy who isn’t even president, and did drop out because of his health. This is what somebody does when they have no argument.
Eventually it IS going to come out that Trump is in mental decline, suffering from Alzheimers, Dementia, or all of the above. It’s inevitable. It will funny to watch you twist and spin that news.
Michael K
May 5, 2025 at 8:21 am
Such a maroon. He clearly does not understand the industry, how it has changed, and global production and distribution networks – let alone the financing. His head is stuck way back in the prior century with naive assumptions. And a trio of “has been” actors are not going to help anything except Trump’s insatiable ego.
Foghorn Leghorn
May 5, 2025 at 8:58 am
It’s moron you maroon.😜
Michael K
May 5, 2025 at 9:39 am
Yes, he is also a moron. Glad you agree.
Foghorn Leghorn
May 5, 2025 at 10:44 am
You do have a sense of humor after all. Nice spin there.
ScienceBLVR
May 5, 2025 at 9:08 am
The origin of the expression “what a maroon!” comes from the legendary Warner Bros. cartoon series, “Looney Tunes.” Bugs Bunny is an American icon, captivating the hearts and minds of American youth since the 1930s.
Hmmmm..”Looney Tunes” also a proper moniker for the Trumpster
Trump Poops his Pants
May 5, 2025 at 11:16 am
Trumpers are scared of everything. Even subtitles.
MarvinM
May 5, 2025 at 12:53 pm
Rick Scott killed Florida’s ability to get those jobs, and they mostly ended up in Georgia. By ending the incentives for film companies to work here.
Weird. I though Republicans were all for more jobs, more business. Pretty sure tariffs on films (how does that even work with streaming?) will result in loss of revenue for movie theaters, aka small businesses. And for what? No actual reason.
Hey Trump, keep packing on tariff after tariff after tariff. Keep lying to the American people that tariffs will make us so rich we won’t have to pay income tax anymore. It’s a complete lie, but sure, tell people that anyway. Watch small businesses fold under the burden. Watch large businesses lay off workers. Watch GDP plummet. Watch jobless rates climb. Sorry, but once you did the tariff announcements, the economy became yours. What happens here on out is all the Trump economy.
Hope y’all reading here are doing something safe with your 401ks and/or retirement savings. It’s going to be a bumpy next 2 to 3 and a half years.
Professor Brandywine
May 5, 2025 at 2:13 pm
“Weird. I though Republicans were all for more jobs, more business.”
Only if they are getting a piece of the action.
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