NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 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 Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff 鈥渙n any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.鈥
鈥淭he Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries 鈥渁re 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!鈥
It wasn鈥檛 immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It鈥檚 common for both large and smaller films to include production both in the U.S. and other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming 鈥淢ission: Impossible 鈥 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 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 鈥淣e Zha 2鈥 grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, in earned just $20.9 million.
The Motion Picture Association didn鈥檛 immediately respond to messages Sunday evening.
The MPA鈥檚 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.聽
Trump has made good on the 鈥渢ariff 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 actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as 鈥渟pecial ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACK鈥擝IGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!鈥
U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the 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.聽
The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, . 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 , second only to 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed expanding California鈥檚 Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million.聽
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.
鈥淥ther nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,鈥 Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.”
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Associated Press writer Gary Field contributed to this report from Washington.
