Trump announces plans for 100% tariffs on all foreign movies

President Donald Trump announced intentions Sunday to impose a 100% tariff on movies created in other countries and imported into the United States, criticizing other countries for giving financial incentives to "draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States."

Trump, in an evening post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he has instructed the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative to place a 100% tariff on films that are produced outside the United States and imported into America.

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.  Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote in his post. “Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. "WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA AGAIN."

"Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat," Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to foreign films as "messaging and propaganda."

"I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands," he continued.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday that "other nations have been stealing the movies, the moviemaking capabilities from the United States," blaming California Governor Gavin Newsom for the fall in film output in Hollywood in particular over the previous several years.

A spokeswoman for Newsom did not return a request for comment Sunday night.

"If they're not willing to make a movie inside the United States, we should have a tariff when movies come in," Trump said. "I can tell you one thing, moviemakers love it."

The Motion Picture Association, which represents Hollywood's major studios in Washington, declined to comment. The association’s latest economic impact report, based primarily on government data and released in 2023, showed that the film industry generated a positive U.S. balance of trade for every major market in the world.

The US box office gross peaked at just about $12 billion in 2018, before plummeting to little more than $2 billion in 2020, when many cinemas were closed due to Covid. Although theaters have rebounded, the number of releases is about half of what it was in 2019, and the total domestic box office gross hasn’t eclipsed $9 billion since.

But placing tariffs or other trade barriers on foreign-made products may not make business any easier for Hollywood studios. Many American films and television series are shot on location outside of the United States. In addition to tax savings, many overseas workers seek lower wages, making some films more economically viable to create.

Technically speaking, the vast majority of movies shown in American cinemas are produced in the United States — scripts written, preproduction planning handled, principal actors cast, footage edited and sound added. However, Hollywood has increasingly resorted to other locations for the camera-rolling portion of the filmmaking process since, like so much conventional manufacturing, it is far cheaper.

Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and other large movie businesses, including Netflix and Amazon, have taken advantage of tax breaks offered by the United Kingdom, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, among others. International locales also often come with lower labor costs.