Tariffs On Movies Made Overseas: Trump
President Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on movies made overseas. He made the announcement on his social media website Truth Social on ‘Star Wars Day.’ On the morning of, The White House posted an image of Trump as a “lightsaber-wielding Jedi.” This followed his eyebrow-raising post, an AI-generated image depicting him as the next Pope.
Hollywood’s Existential Woes
In September 2024, Regan Morris of the BBC detailed the dwindling prospects in an article titled “Hollywood’s big boom has gone bust.” Morris adduced that the Hollywood’s writers’ strike in May 2023 during was the final nail in the coffin. “The strikes lasted multiple months and marked the first time since the 1960s that both writers and actors joined forces. Effectively shutting down Hollywood production. But rather than roaring back, in the one year since the strikes ended, production has fizzled,” Morris wrote.
This follows the film industry’s decade-long exodus to greener pastures to other cities and countries where the cost of production is significantly lower. Nicole Sperling and Matt Stevens of The New York Times noted that these departures have left a sizeable dent on the Californian economy. A source cited in their article said, “We are allowing California to become to the entertainment industry what Detroit has become to the auto industry.”
In October 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a proposal to offset the crisis. His idea would “expand California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program to $750 million annually, a massive increase from the current $330 million annual allocation.”
Tariffs On Movies: Collateral Damage?
A week after Trump announced 145% tariffs against Chinese imports, Beijing swiftly retaliated against the president’s protectionist actions. One of their measures entailed “curbing Hollywood imports,” in other words, reducing the number of films it will “import” to the mainland. This punitive move was yet another deathblow to Hollywood, which rakes in a significant chunk of revenue from its Chinese audience. Read more about tariffs here.
However, with Trump’s latest decree on movie tariffs, many unanswered questions remain. Firstly, it is unclear how movies already in overseas production would be affected. Next, the vague language doesn’t explain tariffs on “straight-to-streaming” movies or even tv shows. Finally, Trump’s order jeopardizes the future of many foreign-language films celebrated by the domestic audience.
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