US president said move would affect shows produced ’in foreign lands’
US president Donald Trump has said he will place a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the States.
Trump revealed the move on Sunday evening via his Truth Social platform and said it would apply to all movies “produced in foreign lands”.
There was no mention of content produced for TV or streaming in Trump’s post, which added that the domestic movie industry was “dying a very fast death” as a result of incentives from countries outside of the US.
“Other Countries are offering all sorts of Incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump’s post read. “Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.”
Hollywood has seen a marked fall in film and TV production over recent years, as countries around the world have looked to use tax incentive schemes and lower costs to pull in US productions.
Local trade body Film LA reported that film production had fallen by almost 30% in the first three months of 2025, while 2024 was the second least productive year behind 2020 when the pandemic hit the industry.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has looked to compete more recently, pushing for a more than doubling of his state’s annual film and TV tax credit program scheme to $750m.
Trump described the use of incentives outside of the US as “a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”
He added that he had authorised the Department of Commerce and the US 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.”
‘Awaiting further detail’
There was no detail on how tariffs would be applied, whether they would impact movies that were only partly shot outside of the US or how post-production services would be affected.
It is also unclear how Trump’s ambassadors to Hollywood – Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight – will be involved. Recent reports have claimed Voigt is putting together a strategy to support the US industry but no details have yet emerged.
Movies have become the latest battleground for Trump, who unveiled a raft of tariffs last month, many of which he subsequently delayed.
Most of those were applied to products – rather than services such as TV shows – but that did not stop a Wall Street sell-off that hit many US media companies.
Fears also rose that the action would indirectly affect TV producers, with the scripted sector likely to be most affected.
In response to Trump’s post, Australia’s home affairs minister Tony Burke spoke to government body Screen Australia and said ”that we will be standing up unequivocally for the rights of the Australian screen industry.”
Christopher Luxon, New Zealand prime minister, added that his government is awaiting further detail but “we’ll be obviously a great advocate, great champion of that sector in that industry.”
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