President Donald Trump To Introduce Tariffs On Non-US Made Movies
Over the past few months, the world has been in turmoil over the introduction of tariffs by the new US president, Donald Trump, which have resulted in trade wars around the globe. This past Sunday, Hollywood was brought into the mix as the president announced he was going to try to bring the movie-making business back to the United States by introducing a 100% tariff on all movies coming into the United States.
President Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to confirm his plans:
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. 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. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! 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!
The President also spoke to reporters about the situation stating:
“What they’ve done is other nations have been stealing the movies, the moviemaking capabilities from the united States. I’ve done some very strong research over the past week, and we’re making very few movies now. Hollywood is being destroyed. Now, you have a … grossly incompetent governor that allowed that to happen, so I’m not just blaming other nations, but other nations have stolen our movie industry. If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States, then we should have a tariff on movies that come in. And not only that, governments are actually giving big money. They’re supporting them financially. That’s sort of a threat to our country in a sense.”
Production of movies and shows in the United States has been on the decline for many years, for a variety of reasons, including the pandemic, strikes and tax incentives. It’s also unclear if these tariffs will only apply to films or if they will also impact television shows.
Many countries around the world offer the major studios incentives for filming their shows and movies there, which helps support local film industries. Marvel is currently filming “Avengers: Doomsday” in London, England, with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” also set to begin filming there later this summer. Marvel also filmed “Deadpool and Wolverine”, along with the Disney+ show, “Loki”, in the UK. Many other recent releases, such as “Thor: Love And Thunder” and “Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings”, were filmed in Australia, and the current box office hit, “Thunderbolts”, was mainly shot in Utah, but included scenes filmed in Malaysia.
The new Disney+ Original series, “Andor: A Star Wars Story”, was also filmed in the UK, with the upcoming “Star Wars: Starfighter” set to begin production in the UK later this year, however, “Mandalorian & Grogu” was filmed on location in California, making it the first Star Wars film to be shot in the US.
All three of the “Avatar” movies, along with “Predator: Badlands” and the upcoming “Zombies 4” movies, were filmed in New Zealand. The upcoming FX series Alien: Earth was filmed in Thailand, and Alien: Romulus was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Meanwhile, the latest 20th Centnury Studios film, “The Amateur” featured film locations in Toronto, Vienna, and London.
These incentives have resulted in a general reduction in production in the United States, and while some states offer tax breaks, it is often not enough to encourage filming on location in the United States.
There are many questions about how this is going to impact the film industry, as currently, there are deals in place globally that mean that digital products don’t have tariffs on them. It’s a complicated situation because, much like the automobile industry, movies and shows are pieced together using many different parts from around the world. A movie or show could be filmed in multiple countries, but feature other components such as music and special effects added in other locations. These are then all edited together to make a show or movie a finished product. So it’s not as simple as just adding a tariff to a product imported into the US.
Depending on how this is implemented, this change is likely to sway future productions toward relocation to the US. It could result in more movies and shows being made in the United States, which is great for job opportunities within the US, but could be devastating for film industries around the world.
There is also the risk of retaliation from other countries around the world, who could impose tariffs on movies and shows being imported into their countries. With over half the box office revenue coming from outside the United States, this will impact on the studios revenues.
Many countries have already introduced levies on streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+, in order to protect local productions. All of which will push the price up of streaming services, movie tickets, DVDS and digital purchases for customers worldwide.
It’s also possible that this could impact on what movies and shows are made available to people. For example, Disney may decide not to release original international programs or films on Hulu or Disney+ in the United States to save money on tariffs. This could also happen the other way around, should other countries also implement tariffs on US-owned entertainment.
Other potential side effects of this move by the President are that global audiences avoid US-made movies and shows, since there is already an anti-American boycott underway around the world, with people avoiding US-owned companies like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
All of these changes could drastically impact on the box office success of many of the upcoming releases like “Lilo & Stitch”, “Fantastic Four: The First Steps” and “Elio”. Plus, audiences around the world could also start unsubscribing to platforms like Disney+ as a protest against these tariffs.
CEO Bob Iger spoke last month about the impact tariffs are going to have on the Walt Disney Company, with increased tariffs on merchandise imported from around the world and also on its theme park/cruise business. International tourism into the US is already in decline due to the anti-American sentiment created by President Trump’s actions.
It’s unclear how these tariffs are going to impact on the Hollywood Studios, since the situation is ongoing and changing rapidly. There will likely be some pushback from the studios on this problem, as the movie industry is a global business, and entertainment is one of the US’s biggest exports.
Regardless of your own political beliefs, no matter what happens next, the entertainment world has now been thrust into the Tariff Wars. It’s going to have an impact, both short and long term. Things are going to drastically change depending on how this works out. Production on shows and films could return to the US, which is what President Trump wants, but there will be consequences for this. Costs will increase, resulting in the type of shows and films created changing, along with fewer new releases. These costs will ultimately be passed onto the consumer in some way, through higher theatre ticket prices, more expensive digital/physical home video costs and subscription increases. To add to the chaos, everything could change within a moment’s notice, so it’s going to get messy, and it will impact what we get to see on our screens in the future.
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