Donald Trump has announced a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the US, saying the American movie industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw US filmmakers.
“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” the president said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump added: “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “We’re on it” in a post on X.
It is not yet clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented.
It is common for both large and smaller films to include production in both the US and other countries.
Many big-budget movies are shot around the world.
Incentive programmes for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favourable tax incentives, including Britain.
Yet tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products, and American-produced movies overwhelmingly dominate the domestic marketplace.
China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 grossing more than $2bn (£1.5bn) this year. However its sales came almost entirely from mainland China.
In North America, it earned just $20.9m (£15.7m).
Trump has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas.
Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACK-BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
US film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
The wildfires that destroyed sections of Los Angeles in January accelerated concerns that producers may look elsewhere, and that camera operators, costume designers, sound technicians and other behind-the-scenes workers may move out of town.
Film and television production in Los Angeles has fallen by nearly 40% over the last decade, according to FilmLA, a non-profit that tracks the region’s production.
Overall production in the US was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which also tracks production.
The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the US made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Toronto, the UK, Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.
Separately, Trump in another post on Sunday said he had ordered former notorious prison Alcatraz – now a popular tourist spot – to reopen for America’s “most ruthless” criminals.
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