By JILL COLVIN and JAKE COYLE, Related Press
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is opening a brand new salvo in his tariff struggle, concentrating on movies made exterior the U.S.
In a submit Sunday night time on his Reality Social platform, Trump stated he has licensed the Division of Commerce and the Workplace of the U.S. Commerce Consultant to slap a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
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“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that different international locations “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!”
It wasn’t instantly clear how any such tariff on worldwide productions might be applied. It’s widespread for each massive and small movies to incorporate manufacturing within the U.S. and in different international locations. Huge-budget films just like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for example, are shot around the globe.
Incentive applications for years have influenced the place films are shot, more and more driving movie manufacturing out of California and to different states and international locations with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the UK.
But Trump’s tariffs are designed to guide shoppers towards American merchandise. And in film theaters, American-produced films overwhelming dominate the home market.
China has ramped up its home film manufacturing, culminating within the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossing greater than $2 billion this yr. However even then, its gross sales got here nearly totally from mainland China. In North America, it earned simply $20.9 million.
In New Zealand, the place successive governments have provided rebates and incentives lately to attract Hollywood movies to the nation, the movie business has generated billions of {dollars} in tourism income pushed by the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies, which featured the nation’s pristine and scenic vistas. Extra just lately, the blockbuster “Minecraft” film was filmed totally in New Zealand, and U.S. productions in 2023 delivered $1.3 billion New Zealand {dollars} ($777 million) to the nation in return for NZ$200 million in subsidies, in accordance with authorities figures.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stated he was awaiting extra particulars of Trump’s measures earlier than commenting on them however would proceed to pitch to filmmakers overseas, together with in India’s Bollywood. “We’ve got an absolutely world class industry,” he stated. “This is the best place to make movies, period, in the world.”
The Movement Image Affiliation, which represents main U.S. movie studios and streaming companies, didn’t instantly reply to messages Sunday night.
The MPA’s knowledge exhibits how a lot Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. In response to the MPA, the American films produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in commerce surplus in 2023.
Trump, a Republican, has made good on the “tariff man” label he gave himself years in the past, slapping new taxes on items made in international locations across the globe. That features a 145% tariff on Chinese language items and a ten% baseline tariff on items from different international locations, with even increased levies threatened.
By unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump has exerted extraordinary affect over the stream of commerce, creating political dangers and pulling the market in several instructions. There are tariffs on autos, metal and aluminum, with extra imports, together with pharmaceutical medication, set to be topic to new tariffs within the weeks forward.
Trump has lengthy voiced concern about film manufacturing shifting abroad.
Shortly earlier than he took workplace, he introduced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to function “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to carry it “BACK — BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
U.S. movie and tv manufacturing has been hampered lately, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the current wildfires within the Los Angeles space. General manufacturing within the U.S. was down 26% final yr in contrast with 2021, in accordance with knowledge from ProdPro, which tracks manufacturing.
The group’s annual survey of executives, which requested about most popular filming areas, discovered no location within the U.S. made the highest 5, in accordance with the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.Ok., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia got here out on prime, with California putting sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.
Different U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago and San Francisco have additionally used aggressive tax incentives to lure movie and TV productions. These applications can take the type of money grants, as in Texas, or tax credit, which Georgia and New Mexico provide.
“Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” Trump instructed reporters on the White Home on Sunday night time after getting back from a weekend in Florida. “If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.”
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Related Press writers Gary Subject in Washington and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report from Washington.
Initially Printed: Could 5, 2025 at 8:34 AM PDT
