UNITED States President, Donald Trump, is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the United States with 100 per cent tariffs in a bid to save “dying Hollywood.”
In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100 per cent tariff on any and all movies coming into the US that were 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!”
The White House said yesterday that it was figuring out how to comply with the president’s wishes.
“Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security, while Making Hollywood Great Again,” said spokesperson, Kush Desai.
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.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reposted Trump’s missive, saying “We’re on it.”
No details were provided on how the tariff would be implemented.
Trump’s post comes after China, which has taken the brunt of the US president’s combative trade policies with 145 percent tariffs on many goods, said last month it would reduce the number of US films it imported.
There was also no mention in Trump’s post of whether television series, an increasingly popular and profitable sector of production for the screen, would be affected.
Hollywood is a major sector of the United States’ economy, generating more than 2.3 million jobs and $279 billion in sales in 2022, according to the latest data from the Motion Picture Association.
But in the wake of the Hollywood strikes and the Covid pandemic impacts, which changed how Americans consumed movies, opting to watch at home instead of in theaters, the industry is still struggling to regain its momentum, industry insiders say.
According to a January report by production tracking service ProdPro, the United States is a top filming hub with $14.5 billion in production spends, though that amount is a 26 percent drop compared to two years earlier.
However, a survey of studio executives revealed that their top five preferred production locations for 2025 and 2026 were all outside of the United States, due to competitive tax incentive schemes on offer.
First was Toronto, followed by Britain, Vancouver, Central Europe and then Australia. California came in sixth place.
Ahead of his inauguration in January, Trump appointed long standing supporters, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as special envoys to Hollywood.
He said they would make the entertainment industry “stronger than ever before” in a post on Truth Social.
Discover more from starmich blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
