Trump ordered to impose 100% duty on foreign-made films to save Hollywood
Kyiv • UNN
Donald Trump said the American film industry is dying and plans to introduce a 100% duty on all films produced abroad. Hollywood producers are calling for increased state tax breaks.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday the introduction of 100% tariffs on films produced outside the country, saying that the American film industry is dying a "very rapid death" due to incentives that other countries offer to lure filmmakers, UNN writes with reference to Reuters.
Details
"This is a concerted effort by other countries and therefore a threat to national security. This is, in addition to everything, a message of messages and propaganda," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump noted that he is authorizing the appropriate government agencies, such as the Department of Commerce, to immediately begin the process of imposing a 100% tariff on all films made abroad that then travel to the United States.
He added: "We want movies made in America again!".
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a post on X: "We're on it."
Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details on how the duty will be introduced.
It is unclear whether the tariffs will apply to films on streaming services as well as those shown in theaters, or whether they will be calculated based on production costs or box office receipts. Hollywood executives were trying to figure out the details on Sunday night. The Motion Picture Association, which represents the major studios, did not comment.
In January, Trump appointed Hollywood veterans John Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson to bring Hollywood back "bigger, better and stronger than ever before."
Film and television production has been leaving Hollywood for years, heading to locations with tax breaks that make filming cheaper.
Governments around the world have increased credits and cash rebates to attract production and capture a large share of the $248 billion Ampere Analysis forecasts will be spent worldwide in 2025 on content production.
All major media companies, including Walt Disney, Netflix and Universal Pictures, film abroad in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom.
According to research firm ProdPro, in 2023, about half of the spending on film and television projects with budgets of more than $40 million was spent outside the United States.
According to FilmLA, a non-profit organization that tracks production in the region, film and television production has declined by nearly 40% in the Hollywood hometown of Los Angeles over the past decade.
January's wildfires have fueled fears that producers may be looking for work outside of Los Angeles, and that operators, costume designers, sound engineers and other behind-the-scenes workers may move out of the city rather than try to recover in their neighborhoods.
A survey of executives conducted by ProdPro showed that California was the sixth most preferred location for filming in the next two years after Toronto, the United Kingdom, Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia.
Hollywood producers and unions are urging Governor Gavin Newsom to increase the state's tax breaks to better compete with other regions.
Trump's proposed film tariff follows a series of trade conflicts initiated by his administration that have roiled markets and raised fears of a U.S. recession.
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Former Department of Commerce official William Reinsch, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that retaliatory measures against Trump's film tariffs would be devastating.
"Retaliatory measures will kill our industry. We may lose much more than we gain," he said, adding that it would be difficult to justify the need for national security or a state of emergency regarding films.
