Liberation Day has come for Hollywood. If you thought the film industry had avoid a bullet after President Trump turned the course Last time, think again.
It is the feeling around the city after Trump’s announcement of Sunday surprise That he would introduce a “100 percent tariff for all films entering our country produced in foreign countries. We want films made in America, again!” (emphasis and trumpian capitalization all his).
He also said that the film industry “dies a very rapid death”, and that the incentives that other countries offer amounts to a “national security threat.”
We have noted before Trumpare in some ways, right about at least a part of this. Filmla just released numbers that said Shooting days in place in Los Angeles was down 22.4 percent the first quarter of this year compared to 2024, and impact on Local labor market has been devastating Ever since Covid and through the strikes in 2023. Trump, while shouting in front of his helicopter, said he has “done a very strong research over the past week”, so we assume he has read Indieview.
“Hollywood is destroyed. Now you have a grossly incompetent governor (Gavin Newsom) who allowed it to happen, so I not only blame other nations, but other nations have stolen our film industry,” he told C-span. “If they are not willing to make a movie in the United States, we should have a duty on movies coming in. And not just that, governments actually give big money. They support them financially. It’s a kind of threat to our country in a way.”
In just the hours since everything was announced, the White House has already begun to go the tough conversation and said through a spokesman that “no final decision on foreign film Customs Has been done, “but that it was” explore all options. “And when he was asked on Monday about the movie Tariffs while standing next to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for some reason, he Royally avoid the question of how any of this would work.
The first thing to do is not fool yet. It’s not just that Trump’s announcement has no details, but he may not even legally able to do it.
“The Black Phone” screenwriter C. Robert Cargill shared any language at Bluesky and noted that Law Trump uses to adopt these customs exclude MoviesAs was the case for the first time when customs were applied only to goods, not services. “He can’t shit here,” Cargill wrote. “It’s 100 percent not enforceable even before” how “of all.”
Let’s get into it “how” little, although such an exercise can be meaningless. We asked an indie producer what questions he has, and he answered, “I mean, everyone? Starts with: Please don’t do this?”
Or, more generally, following:
- Would it apply only to movies or also TV programs that are produced internationally?
- How about streaming?
- At what time does customs apply: when the films go into production, or when released?
- Would it only apply if a movie is physically pushed on site outside America or even if there is foreign financing?
- How about movies that only partially push across borders?
- Are films that are already in production or about to start production to be affected and taxively taxed?
- Who pays these customs, the country, the studio, the producers, the distributor or all of the above?
- Will the costs be felt on ticket prices or on rental fees for studios?
- How do you tax something that is essentially just a digital file that is uploaded to a server and not a physical product?
- Who enforces any of this?
One of the most immediate problems is what these proposed tariffs can do for the international sales market, and it is a brutal coincidence that Trump announced this a week before the industry goes to the Cannes film market.
International sales buyers who participate in sales for many package titles may be afraid, and it would drastically affect the ability for all small or middle of budget films to get financing. The most important studios that have huge production facilities in England, Vancouver, or anywhere else would feel that a pinch without doubt can no doubt that a 100 percent customs still do not compensate the higher costs of doing business in the United States as a result of fewer tax incentives, trade unions and an overall cost to do business.
Trump made his announcement shortly after reports showed it up Jon Voight, one of three “special ambassadors” Trump was selected to be his eyes and ears in HollywoodHave taken meetings around town on how to raise issues in the industry (one of the other, Sylvester Stallone, has not seemed to be involved, while the third, Mel Gibson, plans to shoot his “Passion of the Christ” sequence in Rome). But Deadline Shared that Voight looked at a tax incentive offered at the federal level, which can help the United States fight foreign influence while adding incentives coming from the state level.
There is something producer Jason Michael Berman, the producer of the Spike Lee movie “Highst 2 Lowest” (shot everything in New York, for what it is worth) would be everything too in front of him on the way to the Cannes market.
“Hopefully it is positive that can come out of this that we can actually help get more support behind a national tax incentive program for the creation of content. We always want to look at the glass half full,” he told IndieWire. “It will be a spotlight on this now, as many of us have called the clock, especially producers like myself. Hopefully there is not an overreaction on this, because there are many things that need to be calculated.”
It sets it mildly.
