19 ms·

Trump announces 100% tariffs on movies ‘produced in foreign lands’

211 points by limbicsystem 1y ago

hunglee2 1y ago
Trump always hated foreign movies - I remember him disparaging an Academy award winning movie purely because it was non-English language. Wonder what prompted this outburst - the success of Ne Zha 2 (china bad), or No Other Land (can't say Palestine)?
- nsriv 1y ago
  This proclamation and his desire to reopen Alcatraz may be linked to the fact that PBS in Palm Beach aired "Escape from Alcatraz" last night. Presumably the tariffs on foreign movies came from his annoyance at channel surfing. https://bsky.app/profile/garyalexander.bsky.social/post/3lofg3fkghk26 https://bsky.app/profile/garyalexander.bsky.social/post/3lof...
  - lawn 1y ago
    That's a more logical explanation than all these "4D chess" theories out there that try to sane-wash Trumps actions into a coherent strategy.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - Phui3ferubus 1y ago
    > Sign-in Required > This user has requested that their content only be shown to signed-in users. Oh great, a Twitter replacement that implements worst of it's predecessor features.
    - nsriv 1y ago
      I got the warning when I shared, but I think it's ostensibly a security/privacy measure that users can toggle on and off. Anyways, here's a more direct source that should be publicly accessible, the prior was my first encounter with it. https://bsky.app/profile/robertandrewp.bsky.social/post/3log46xj5nk2q https://bsky.app/profile/robertandrewp.bsky.social/post/3log...
- cool_dude85 1y ago
  It's something that I think has been bubbling up for a while. I've heard a lot of complaints from people in and around the industry, and the complaints are a lot less about Ne Zha 2 and more about stuff that used to be filmed in Hollywood being filmed in Canada instead for cost purposes.
  - datavirtue 1y ago
    Cool, whatever organic market activities need to take place to make products cheaper is ok by the real gods of sacred capitalism. Trump is acting more and more like an irrational communist dictator each day.
    - cool_dude85 1y ago
      I think tax credits in other countries have a lot to do with the consideration here, so it's not like a free market paradise situation as-is.
- rafram 1y ago
  I had never heard of Ne Zha 2, but a quick search shows that it only had a limited release in the US and made a tiny $20 million at the box office. Unlikely that Trump is making decisions based on that.
  - brohee 1y ago
    What is your source, I get $2 billions at the box office, which is indeed a triumph.
    - rafram 1y ago
      That’s globally, not in the US. It was barely released in the US at all.
bananapub 1y ago
It bodes very badly for everyone that the entire Republican Party is fine with having an entire federal government policy based on the random TV-driven whims of a bitter, broken and clearly ailing old man. Would they even try to stop him pushing the button?
- csomar 1y ago
  It is not random. These are not some lucky people who got the lead of the world most powerful country. These are targeted at blue states/demographics. This should have been obvious from Section 174(c)(3) but somehow everyone seems oblivious to it?
  - latexr 1y ago
    > This should have been obvious from Section 174(c)(3) but somehow everyone seems oblivious to it? If you want to change that, i.e. make people aware of it, don’t just name the section; link to it and briefly explain what it is and why people should be against it. Even doing just one of those three would help your cause.
    - nobody9999 1y ago
      >If you want to change that, i.e. make people aware of it, don’t just name the section; link to it and briefly explain what it is and why people should be against it. Even doing just one of those three would help your cause. I'm not sure why this (Section 174(c)(3)) [0] is relevant to our discussion in any way, but here it is for everyone's perusal: >(3) Software development > >For purposes of this section, any amount paid or incurred >in connection with >the development of any software shall >be treated as a research or experimental >expenditure. [0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 Edit: Fixed quote formatting.
- datavirtue 1y ago
  No, they very much want the button.
- 1y ago
pluc 1y ago
Defund education then defund culture. Sounds exactly like America First/America Only. Next up is propaganda and filling Americans' minds with only what he wants you to know. He can flood the media as he's been flooding the government, all the pieces are in play. Still nobody putting up a meaningful fight. Your window is closing.
- solumunus 1y ago
  What would a meaningful fight look like?
  - pluc 1y ago
    Look at Georgia, look at Serbia, look at the Arab Spring. Look at your constitution! There is a part in there about resistance to oppression you seem to only use to defend the wrong things.
    - adamors 1y ago
      Did you look at Georgia and Serbia yourself? Protests have been ongoing for months, government doesn't care.
      - pluc 1y ago
        They don't have armed revolution enshrined in their constitution
        ToValueFunfetti 1y ago
        If arms are the important component, what wrong things are you saying we exclusively use that part of the constitution to defend? I don't think that part is used for much else
        pluc 1y ago
        The only time you hear of the second amendment is to justify having guns after a massacre. Yet here we are, literally a textbook case of it, and crickets. I'm against guns and gun violence, but Americans aren't.
xz18r 1y ago
I live in Belgium. It feels like 95% of all films I ever hear about are American. Opponents counter MAGA with 'America was never great', but here they'll say 'Movies have never left America'?
- asib 1y ago
  Movies are overwhelmingly made _by_ American studios but I don't know if they are overwhelmingly _made_ (shot) in the US. It's very common to shoot in a location that gives tax incentives. E.g. Vancouver used to be (potentially still is) a common production location.
  - genocidicbunny 1y ago
    Vancouver and Toronto were very often used as stand-ins for shows based in places like Chicago, Seattle, NYC and many others. Might still be, but I barely consume that sort of media nowadays. It made watching TV shows like Stargate SG1 additionally amusing though -- every planet they visited was basically some location near Vancouver. Me and friends used to joke about how much like carcinisation is a thing in evolution, in the Stargate universe all planets eventually ended up looking like British Columbia.
    - a2tech 1y ago
      An argument could be made that the Ancients built Stargate's in places they wanted to go/were comfortable for them, and those areas were like BC
      - genocidicbunny 1y ago
        Iirc, either Carter or Daniel Jackson pretty much said something along those lines in one of the later seasons. Not the BC part specifically, but about why stargates were usually on planets pretty comfortable for humans. But the overarching point is that even shows where at least one of the actors (RDA) were given an award by the US Air Force for their depiction of the branch, were largely filmed outside the US.
seydor 1y ago
it s impressive that , despite the US deciding to self-implode there is nobody willing to step in to compete for their place. It's as if the species has culturally peaked after its demographic peak. Europe is already in retirement and US seems to follow. Maybe we'll see African dynamism in a few decades
- gus_massa 1y ago
  China?
  - 7thaccount 1y ago
    China is in a similar problem to South Korea where pretty soon they'll be in a rapid population decline. Or so some have been saying. I believe their official census data supports this.
- beardyw 1y ago
  > step in to compete Not sure how that looks - probably starts with not imposing tariffs.
- matwood 1y ago
  > there is nobody willing to step in to compete for their place China has been stepping on a number fronts. They are working on trade deals that exclude the US, and I'm sure are excited about the soft power vacuum left when USAID shutdown.
  - WinstonSmith84 1y ago
    Maybe?.. If China had some sort of open minded Taiwanese government instead of the CCP, the US would be already buried by now. The problem of China, besides its concerning demography, is the authoritarian regime and its expansion views, which are both not very appealing for many Asian neighbors and Europeans.
    - akudha 1y ago
littlestymaar 1y ago
Not only are the US the biggest film exporter in the world by far, with Hollywood being a pillar of American soft power, but you can't even apply “tariff” to movies as it is IP, not physical goods (on which tariffs apply). Sure you can imagine schemes to tax these anyway, but that's a huge can of worms to open for the US, are they are net exporters of everything IP related. The EU has been struggling with base evasion and profit shifting (BEPS) from US companies because it was all about IP and they never dared to tax it in fear of upsetting the US government. But if the move comes from the US first, then they will follow suite with a lot of enthusiasm.
- iszomer 1y ago
  What about the context of IP content piracy between countries?
  - bilekas 1y ago
    Can you give any examples of IP piracy (outside of China) because IP in the US doesn't automatically transfer outside the US, they need to be registered in other regions also..
    - iszomer 1y ago
      Sure, my wasted youth buying VCD's that turned out to be shitty telesync/cam rips.
- dragonwriter 1y ago
  > but you can't even apply “tariff” to movies as it is IP, not physical goods (on which tariffs apply A government can apply tariffs to any exchange it chooses, but movies are explicitly excluded from the law on which Trump has relied for tariffs, so short of getting a new law passed to authorize movie tariffs, there is no legal authority.
  - littlestymaar 1y ago
    > A government can apply tariffs to any exchange it chooses My point is that it can apply taxes equivalent to tariffs (well, like you said, only Congress can), but since it's not going to be defined by the same law or be regulated by the same international conventions and isn't going to be collected by the same administration nor from the same people (the tax will be raised on the retailer directly, unlike tariffs), I think it's fair not to call that “tariffs” since it's really going to be a very different type of tax.
misja111 1y ago
Was the USA's movie industry really under threat from abroad? In my local cinema here in Europe the great majority of popular movies is American .. To me this move seems more a kind of cultural censorship. Similar to how many foreign movies can't be shown in Russia or China.
- ur-whale 1y ago
  That's not what this is about. Most American movies are shot outside of the US these days because among other factors Hollywood unions have made it way more expensive to shoot in the US.
  - notTooFarGone 1y ago
    Finally: movie adaptions of paris are done in vegas.
  - gtirloni 1y ago
    > That's not what this is about. Of course. It's clearly about the fentanyl emergency.
    - bilekas 1y ago
      Think of the children! The foreign movies might expose them to something other than American English!
  - beardyw 1y ago
    So movie tickets go up either way.
  - misja111 1y ago
    Well these were the words from the horse's mouth: “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” To me this seems to motivate the tariffs as a battle against foreign propaganda.
Ekaros 1y ago
Great way to kill one of the product categories that you do not have trade deficit in...
- skylurk 1y ago
  Yup! Software next.
  - bilbo0s 1y ago
    To be fair, even the EU can be expected to enact regulations calibrated to decrease American dominance in the tech sector at this point. So if Trump tariffs don’t take down US software. I’m certain new regulations around the world will take US software down in any case.
jarym 1y ago
Yes this man was democratically elected. There didn’t seem to be a particularly appealing set of options for the electorate. As an outsider it seems a lot like groups pulling the political levers in the US only ensure candidates that can be ‘handled’ are put forward and those that can’t will be rooted out. That’s why the choice was between braindead Biden vs deranged Trump. And when it was clear Biden wasn’t an option, a belated shift to try sell Kamala to the electorate. I don’t think we’ll see strong presidential candidates - those clearly motivated to better the country and its citizens - in the near future either. The process now seems to suit the corporate and lobby groups who jostle to get their share of influence.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- datavirtue 1y ago
  This. Some things are going very wrong for the body politic.
- latexr 1y ago
  > There didn’t seem to be a particularly appealing set of options for the electorate. I mean, there was one candidate who fawns over dictators, is a felon, always acts in his own personal interest, and had very public plans to try to dismantle democracy and seize ultimate power. Then there was another who would at worst continue the status quo and not try to overthrow the government. It feels ridiculous to claim there was no appealing option. It’s like being given the option between losing both arms or being slapped in the face and shrugging that none of the options is appealing. At least try to pick the least unappealing.
  - jarym 1y ago
    > at worst continue the status quo That’s what you have spelled out but failed to appreciate the significance of. For a chunk of the electorate the status quo wasn’t working for them. I see from all the down votes people seem blind to this. The ‘status quo’ may have been fine for you hence why you think that was better to continue…
llm_nerd 1y ago
Trump is likely saying this because the new Prime Minister of Canada is visiting tomorrow, and Canada has been fairly successful building a "Hollywood North" industry -- lots of good filming locations, lots of talents that are indistinguishable from Americans, and tax credits on top. This is 100% targeted at Canada, and trying to threaten destroying the Canadian film industry as another lever against Canada. And it is laughably silly. Even in Canada alone, "Hollywood" nets far more than it ever spends here[1]. And of course worldwide media is something that the US has an enormous trade surplus. It's yet another harebrained bit of nonsense from the extremely smooth, simpleton mind of Trump and his greasy used-car salesman, carnival barker Howard Lutnick. What Trump is really achieving in all of these declarations is making the rest of the world ask why do we accept Hollywood controlling the film or music industry, or Silicon Valley controlling the tech industry, or NYC the financial industry, etc? The end result of this is going to be massive decentralization and lowered importance of US industry leadership. [1] Not to mention that the tax credits quite literally subsidizes the industry. And FWIW, I am wholly against tax credits for film productions, and much like paying a sports team to build a stadium, the accounting of the supposed benefit just doesn't make any sense.
- llm_nerd 1y ago
  And indeed, Howard "Barking Carnival Huckster" Nutlick went on Fox News to attack Canada having a film industry. It is exactly what I said. One of the most amazing things about the Idiocracy administration in place in the US is this belief that everything is the domain of Americans, and if any other nation is doing it, clearly they're stealing it. Canada had an automotive industry as long as the US did. We used to have the AutoPact before NAFTA, and we need to bring it back. Canada has a robust film industry on its own. So when Howard Nutlick does his embarrassing "why does Canada make our films" act, there is a point there -- zero US media should be allowed into Canada. None. All IP rights on US products should be abolished. All patents and other.
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incomingpain 1y ago
Vancouver and toronto just had a heart attack. london UK and berlin probably far less impacted. elbows up! Though i dont recommend continuing to antagonize trump even more because it's just triggering his ego and making him retaliate.
- n1b0m 1y ago
  China stood up to his tariffs and he was forced to reverse some of them.
  - incomingpain 1y ago
    In 2020 he reversed some? I dont believe he has reversed anything in 2025. The de minimis revocation and decoupling level tariffs means china-usa trade is over. There was no standing up. He did have to reverse on CUSMA protected trade to avoid lawsuits. He's now targeting non-cusma protected trade.
    - Tepix 1y ago
      Well, he did exclude a lot of electronics from the tariffs, even for china.
ujkhsjkdhf234 1y ago
How do you tariff a movie?
- zirgs 1y ago
  A tariff is a tax - so additional tax on BDs, DVDs, cinema tickets, etc. It's stupid, but it's possible to implement it.
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  Same way you reopen Alcatraz. You don’t, and hope he forgets about it.
mk89 1y ago
I am so looking forward to the sequel of Rome ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series) ), filmed in Georgia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Georgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Georgia). Or the new Lord of The Rings in the Grand Canyon... :)
- mseepgood 1y ago
  Or the remake of 'Paris, Texas' filmed in ..., oh.
- stingraycharles 1y ago
  It’s about the country it’s produced in, not the country it’s recorded in, though?
  - maeln 1y ago
    For now, there is no executive order or anything, so what he means by 'produced in' is anyone guess. Might also be just an announcement that will not end up in anything concrete. Wouldn't be the first time, wouldn't be the last.
    - richrichardsson 1y ago
      There is no rational thought going into Trump's social media output. I swear he has a set of 6 tiny books just the right size for his hands, each with 6 pages and on each page there are 6 categories of things. He's rolls a dice 3 times to pick a category then a final one to pick from the list of 6 tariff levels to be applied. Then when somone wakes up to see whatever unhinged shit he posted "this time" and realises how abjectly stupid it is, the whole things gets unwound. If any journalist dares mention it again then it was just "trolling the fake news media" and was never meant seriously.
  - mk89 1y ago
    Then I misunderstood, I guess... Why would it be more expensive to produce it in the US, then? I thought one of the reasons for making the movie "abroad" was to get some subsidies from other countries "if you film it here", kind of.
hello_computer 1y ago
[flagged]
- buyucu 1y ago
  Chinese movies are getting better and better. I watched Detective Dee recently and enjoyed it a lot.
jparishy 1y ago
The filmmaking industry is constantly flying productions all over the world to avoid paying US labor. Waste of time, money, energy. And the saved money isn't given back to the people making the movie, the unions are still constantly fighting with the industry for basic asks. I don't see a problem here, this is what tariffs are actually for. Broken clock is right twice a day yada yada eta: one can not like the man and not think this is a bad idea. same as we don't need more dolls from china and it's weird for us to suddenly die on that hill. /shrug
- nobunaga 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - jparishy 1y ago
    i don't ask ppl who they voted for because i've learned it's not a good signal on whether they are nice or a good person. life is complicated. i didn't vote for trump though, so at least this village idiot has a clean conscience and just isn't interested in reliving 2017
- investa 1y ago
  Right, wait till all other countries tariff US movies. Again it is another US thing is more expensive for the average human on Earth scenario. Good luck with that.
  - jparishy 1y ago
    It's about the production of movies, not the distribution of movies. I don't think people in this thread are reading the article. The original title of this submission didn't help.
    - victorbjorklund 1y ago
      But you agree that EU should tariff any movie produced in US, right?
steveBK123 1y ago
Guy is mad at seeing too many subtitled films on NFLX
- jhfdbkofdchk 1y ago
  Doesn't realize he has closed captioning turned on.
- mensetmanusman 1y ago
  This is more about placating the union workers.
  - steveBK123 1y ago
    I doubt he cares about any (generally) blue state/city/industry union workers as much as he cares about some random business leader with a vested interest in this outcome that talked to him this weekend.
jansan 1y ago
Europe should counter this with 500% tariffs. I (being German) really want to see a comeback of French cinema.
- orwin 1y ago
  You probably won't. French cinema is americanizing. Good movies are still made, but 'les 3 mousquetaires' showed that most huge french productions are poor copies of 2000 era Ridley Scott (well, Ridley Scott himself make poor copies of his 2000-era films). 'Le Comte de Monte Cristo' was better (way better), but the colour filters,the lack of sound (or the music too loud and too epic), the useless sword fight and the 'reading letter' trick, all inspired by Hollywood action movies pushed it down from Good movie to 'almost as bad as Marvel' imho. And the dialogs not inspired from the book are as expected, but that's modern cinema, not Hollywood in particular. That noone took the torch from Audiard or Prevert is a shame.
  - thrance 1y ago
    Most blockbusters look alike, it doesn't matter where they come from. I don't think a German asking for more "French cinema" asks for more big-budget French movies, as those offer nothing more than American ones. I think they meant more auteur productions like those of the New Wave.
habosa 1y ago
The MAGA people attacking Hollywood is such a big mistake. Yes I know the average celebrity doesn’t share their views, but that doesn’t change the fact that Hollywood projects American culture around the world in a way that the government could never do itself. Movies and music made here are so often cited as the reason why young people around the world idealize America and want to emulate us (buy our clothes, speak English, etc) It’s the cultural equivalent of being the world’s reserve currency, it’s a massive free advantage in almost any situation. Stupid stupid stupid to threaten it.
- earthcreed 1y ago
  You do understand this is a move to protect Hollywood, Right? It is for the very reasons you cited.
  - _aavaa_ 1y ago
    In the domestic market maybe, but I think their point is that it will severely hurt Hollywood abroad.
  - brookst 1y ago
    By “protect” you mean “roll back to the 1950’s”, righ? Because Hollywood today was doing quite well and I don’t think I’ve heard a single industry source asking for this. IMO the other shoe here is stronger content restrictions and more government control of what gets made. Easier to do that with US productions, hence the attempt to make everything distributed in the US a US production.
    - jparishy 1y ago
      Who isn't asking for something to bring more production home? Studio execs? People in LA, ATL, etc want to work, and every year there is less and less jobs below the line in the US, even though there's more productions overall paid for by US companies. This sentiment you're talking about is at least not universal
      - 1y ago
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trebligdivad 1y ago
Soon he'll want Wallace & Gromit with American humour.
jaimebuelta 1y ago
Not sure I follow. Biggest real action movie last year was “Deadpool & Wolverine”, a Disney movie which was shot in UK and made a bit over 50% of its revenue overseas[1]. Its main stars were Canadian and Australian. Does this mean that you’ll have to pay double to go watch it to cinemas in the US? Will that make Disney to focus on the international market? [1] https://the-numbers.com/movie/Deadpool-and-Wolverine-(2024) https://the-numbers.com/movie/Deadpool-and-Wolverine-(2024)
- DeusExMachina 1y ago
  Since it's about movies produced overseas, I don't think the nationality of the actors or the overseas revenue counts. But it probaby counts that it was shot in the UK. The reason why Disney does that is because they get tax breaks from the UK government, which I think it's what Trump is referring to.
  - dom96 1y ago
    So let me get this straight... he's not happy with the UK because of VAT (value added tax) and he's also not happy with the UK because of tax breaks? Amazing.
    - JCharante 1y ago
      I think there's a big difference between VAT for consumer goods and cities providing big incentives for filming there. I'm not giving an opinion on whether they're good or bad, just saying that they're very different and I don't think they should be compared.
    - kjksf 1y ago
      Both are harming US jobs. VAT is bad for US because a car made in US is 22% more expensive when sold in UK than a car made in UK sold in US. VAT makes it harder for US car company to sell in UK. It reduces number of US jobs making cars. UK giving tax breaks to US companies also reduces number of US jobs because a catering business in Los Angeles loses a job to a catering business in London. So does a carpenter, an extra etc. It's all simple to understand, consistent and frankly very leftist.
jpambrun 1y ago
Not sure how you even tarif movies. I guess Netflix will receive bills based on viewership? Anyway, as usual other countries will retaliate. American movies will become both more expensive to make and taxed abroad. Meanwhile, we can expect more people will turn to piracy to cope with rising inflation. I can't imagine any scenario where this isn't backfiring.
- criddell 1y ago
  The tariff would apply when Netflix pays for the distribution rights to a movie or TV show.
  - jpambrun 1y ago
    My uninformed assumption is that most licencing arrangement have per viewer component? Not just a lump sum that can be taxed once?
    - criddell 1y ago
      I don't think so. Netflix guards viewership numbers like they are nuclear secrets.
thrance 1y ago
Is no one in this administration willing/able to deter the senile old man in charge from worsening the situation through new tariffs? I mean, don't get me wrong, this is music to my ears. Ever since I became an accelerationist last november, I cheer every time I see them pour oil on the fire.
- bilbo0s 1y ago
  Huh? If they disagreed with him, they would have already left the administration. So of course no one on Trumps team wants to stop trump.
  - thrance 1y ago
    Sure, but what about the oligarchs that put him in place, the Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Thiel... ?
    - stevenwoo 1y ago
      Only Musk got some of his acolytes in the administration and that is only the grunts doing the dirty work at DOGE.
- jfengel 1y ago
  They're the ones suggesting the tariffs. Last time he let himself be surrounded by people with experience from other administrations. They frequently ran interference. This time he's doing it his way. It's not as if this is unexpected. He said what he was going to do. This is what the voters voted for, and his constituents support him.
croes 1y ago
So movies will get more expensive and studios will do less. Seems like Trump is the best ally for all those who want to reduce US influence in the world.
LatteLazy 1y ago
A lot of films are produced in the uk, so this should mean no trade deal. It won’t of course but there you are…
victorbjorklund 1y ago
I'm sure some in EU loves this. Many politicans in EU wants an excuse to prop up european cinema and this will give them the perfect excuse.
aaron695 1y ago
[dead]
rizs12 1y ago
Any chance Trump could do this for software 'produced in foreign lands'?
- epolanski 1y ago
  100% tariff on Linux, we can't have swedes control american software.
  - victorbjorklund 1y ago
    Sweden or Finland? Well, since I'm Swedish I wont complain.
d3nj4l 1y ago
This makes no sense and people are giving it too much credit. What does “produced” mean? How do you “tariff” a movie? When is the movie crossing the border and who’s doing the valuation, customs check, and so on? There’s literally no substance to this and people are tying themselves into knots to make sense of this.
- peder 1y ago
  There are things to sort out, but it's certainly doable. They can probably use direct COGS to determine the tariff basis.
  - Majromax 1y ago
    > There are things to sort out, but it's certainly doable. They can probably use direct COGS to determine the tariff basis. You could construct a variety of accounting methods to calculate a tax on the 'foreign content' of movies, but how do you actually impose this tax? A tariff on physical goods is easy. A country requires that goods enter the country through customs facilities, and then the nice customs official doesn't release the thing until the tax is paid. The legal and physical ability to impose these taxes is long, long established. How do you physically impose a tariff on a movie? If the master is transported physically, what is its value? The value of the fixed copy/master doesn't necessarily include the value of the IP involved, in the same way that a DVD of a $500 million movie might have a retail value of $20. What about movies transferred digitally, since there are no customs checkpoints on fiber-optic lines? What legal apparatus would be used to impose this tax? Trump is currently getting away with the physical-goods tariffs because the legal infrastructure to collect the taxes is already in place, and remaining legal disputes are just about whether the President can unilaterally set or change tariff rates. If you'd need new law to "tariff movies," then the chance of this whim turning into a real tax drops sharply.
- TechDebtDevin 1y ago
  VAT is what America wants but they literally dont know the word theyre looking for.
- nxobject 1y ago
Buttons840 1y ago
Do you want a European version of Netflix to be cheaper (in the US)? Because this is how you make foreign websites cheaper. The Trump admin seems to be hastening the day that foreign website are more popular than US websites.
- Tepix 1y ago
  They will just outlaw them. Look at Tiktok or even Deepseek.
bilekas 1y ago
Was something actually been written up or is this just some rally ranting ? Because I would love to read the National Security justification for imposing a tariff on foreign movies. In fact I'm sure some US companies are gonna be hit by this such as Netflix ? Disney ?
- Reubachi 1y ago
  This is; 1. Media spin or early reporting, it is nothing in stone yet. This should be the understanding for any "new policy" announced m-f for this admin. 2. Even if it is to be set in stone, likely will be rescinded. 3. It is vague on purpose ^ 4. Assuming it becomes set in ston, it is a direct pander to Disney, Universal etc. from the current admin. Chinese film making (animation in particular) is now outperforming Disney in every metric in every market. 5. Disney et all. stand to lose either way. This is capitalism at work and american film studios will see costs skyrocket as local and foreign competitors silo resources.
- SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
  So far only the dictatorial threat has been made. The Secretary of Commerce says he’s working on it, so presumably he’ll fabricate a justification for it soon.
drooopy 1y ago
We're really close to him issuing an executive order demanding that crops be watered with Gatorade, aren't we?
Der_Einzige 1y ago
Given how much modern actors and related are freaking out about AI (despite holding "egalitarian" social views), I'm more than happy to see them destroyed. Very bad for US soft-power but great for helping gut hollywood faster. Huge amounts of the top brass of hollywood are disgusting. Tom Cruise and the rest of Scientologies leadership should be in prison right now, and that's just one tiny example of the sea of shit found in hollywood.
- supertimor 1y ago
  This is a bit reductionist. While I agree that there are some out of touch and terrible people in powerful positions in Hollywood, a ton of average working class people rely on Hollywood to make a living (i.e. catering, film crews, manufacturers, retail, etc). It’s like saying that the entire tech industry should be destroyed and screw all the tech workers, they should all lose their jobs because Zuckerberg is an awful person. I agree with you that Scientology is a criminal organization though.
perihelions 1y ago
Does the First Amendment preclude the US from imposing prohibitive taxes on media? It'd be clearly unconstitutional to ban them outright; so, where and how's that line drawn? late edit: I just want to note the text of POTUS' announcement includes this: "It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!" The overtly expressed motive here is animus towards the content of the speech (not some content-neutral factor like trade balances).
intellectronica 1y ago
Someone needs to tell Trump about BitTorrent.
alistairSH 1y ago
Will this simply drive studios to produce with an even heavier eye towards the Chinese market? There’s a nugget of truth to Hollywood moving production overseas, but I’m not convinced a massive tariff will have the effect Trump wants. Just like all his other economic fuckery.
codingbot3000 1y ago
As a side note, why does he only get ~21k likes on Truth Social for his post? https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114452117143235155 https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1144521171432... What is going on there? Why don't they fix the likes for him? :-D
the_duke 1y ago
It's not just "evil greedy production companies want to save money", as some other comments imply. There is EU regulation requiring that 30% of content available on streaming services for European customers are "European works". The definition is a bit complicated, but this is definitely a big part of why plenty of production has moved to Europe and the UK. If this goes through it could bring some problems for Netflix et al. They can always artificially restrict the low-value content content from customers in EU countries though. As if the arcane licensing and availability landscape wasn't crazy enough for media... (See the "Audiovisual Media Services Directive")
deleted 1y ago
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apexalpha 1y ago
I don't get it? How many non-US movies does the US even import? I can't think of any country that the US imports more movies from than it exports? Even if you believe in tariffs what industry in America does this protect that needs protection? Of is he gambling on recipritoral tarrifs to 'punish' the liberal Hollywood???? Sounds conspiracy-like but I legit can't think of any other reason this makes sense.
_3u10 1y ago
How does one tariff a movie? It’s not like because it’s made in Australia that the blue rays are shipped through there? Not that anyone uses blue rays, like at what point does a movie go through customs
pcurve 1y ago
For movies that have heavy CGI / blue screen reliance, it is almost irrelevant where it is actually shot.
Bluestrike2 1y ago
I realize it's just another hair-brained scheme likely cooked up on the porcelain throne, but part of me is curious about how exactly they'd implement this train wreck. Since Trump is relying on declarations of national emergencies for his tariffs, there's the question whether it's even legal given that Berman Amendments to the IEEPA[0] explicitly exempt "informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, *films*, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds" from the President's authority under IEEPA.[1] Even if we set that aside and ignore the likely legal challenges, how would you actually implement them? It's not like a movie or TV episode "produced" overseas gets transmitted into the US each time somebody wants to watch it. It's a digital file, and you're really only sending it once. So when do you tariff the damn thing, how do you manage to actually do it since there's not exactly a literal port of entry for the internet, and what exactly do you value it at? The system isn't built to track and tariff info being uploaded to random servers, and making it work would require all sorts of new law. Plus, what's the legal definition of "production" he wants to use? What constitutes foreign production? Can some of the producing just be done remotely? What if raw footage is uploaded instead and then it's edited here? Or a nearly finished copy that just needs something minor done to be considered ready? Hollywood accountants are in a league of their own. Put them in a room with lawyers and accountants whose focus is the creative eccentricities of tariff engineering--hello, chicken tax people[0]--and I shudder to imagine what they'd get up to. We're only a few months in at this point, and I feel like I'm losing my mind. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Economic_Powers_Act#Curtailment_of_emergency_executive_powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Econom... 1. https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/2333/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/2333... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
kjksf 1y ago
Maybe people should first understand the context of this. Apparently, here's the data: California is losing its grip on the film industry as Canada, the UK, and Australia outspend the U.S. on production subsidies. LA’s soundstage occupancy dropped to 90% pre-strikes, while Warner Brothers and Netflix ramp up overseas filming. Even a $3.75 billion tax credit boost might not be enough to keep Hollywood on top. Meanwhile, Vancouver is adding 20 new soundstages, and UK productions hit a record $7 billion. Here's Ben Affleck talking about this: https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/entertainment/ben-affleck-criticizes-california-for-taking-the-film-and-tv-industry-for-granted-as-productions-leave-the-state/ https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/entertainment/ben-affleck-crit..., https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1913449981643456612 https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1913449981643456612 Here's Adam Scott and Rob Lowe talking about it: https://x.com/medx0/status/1919178518031896903 https://x.com/medx0/status/1919178518031896903 Basically it seems that movie production and jobs created by it moved outside of US in a massive way. Hence the leftist tarrifs meant to reverse that and bring movie production back in US
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- guerrilla 1y ago
  Leftist?
- r00fus 1y ago
  Yeah, Trump's a real leftist!
- fxd123 1y ago
  > leftist tarrifs huh?
zelias 1y ago
The rumor I heard is that Trump watched _Escape From Alcatraz_ over the weekend, which resulted in this decree in addition to the "we are reopening Alcatraz" decree
SpacePortKnight 1y ago
Next up, all software produced in foreign lands would be subject to tariffs.
sagebird 1y ago
Wes Anderson is positioning cinematographers on American soil with extremely powerful telephoto lenses, filming actors performing in meticulously designed miniature sets across the Canadian border. The film will be titled "The Asymmetrical Tax Avoidance" and will star Bill Murray as a customs agent with daddy issues.
bazoom42 1y ago
This might have an interesting effect on the kind of movies produced in the US. Presumably other countries will hit American movies with reciprocal tariffs which will hurt the international market for Hollywood. But some genres play much better internationally than others. We might see a decline in fantasy and action blockbusters and a resurgence in wordy comedies and baseball movies.
aceazzameen 1y ago
What's Trump's agenda? Kiss the ring and we'll waive your tariffs? In what form will Hollywood be asked to kiss the ring here? More pro maga content? Pro maga actors? Remove "woke" content?
- r00fus 1y ago
  You got it. All he ever does is shakedowns.
IAmGraydon 1y ago
Yeah good luck with that. The statute that gives presidents emergency tariff powers explicitly exempts movies. > The authority granted to the President by this section does not include the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly [...] the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, of any information or informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1702 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1702
emrah 1y ago
Tariffs are effectively paid by the buyer, unless the seller reduces prices to counteract the tariff, which ain't gonna happen, so what is Trump trying to do, bankrupt us all? #angryface#
enaaem 1y ago
It's time for Bollywood movies to made in America.
newswangerd 1y ago
Does anyone have any idea what this looks like in practice? How do you put a tariff what essentially amounts to information?

211 points by limbicsystem 1y ago

Trump always hated foreign movies - I remember him disparaging an Academy award winning movie purely because it was non-English language. Wonder what prompted this outburst - the success of Ne Zha 2 (china bad), or No Other Land (can't say Palestine)?

nsriv 1y ago
This proclamation and his desire to reopen Alcatraz may be linked to the fact that PBS in Palm Beach aired "Escape from Alcatraz" last night. Presumably the tariffs on foreign movies came from his annoyance at channel surfing. https://bsky.app/profile/garyalexander.bsky.social/post/3lofg3fkghk26 https://bsky.app/profile/garyalexander.bsky.social/post/3lof...
- lawn 1y ago
  That's a more logical explanation than all these "4D chess" theories out there that try to sane-wash Trumps actions into a coherent strategy.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Phui3ferubus 1y ago
  > Sign-in Required > This user has requested that their content only be shown to signed-in users. Oh great, a Twitter replacement that implements worst of it's predecessor features.
  - nsriv 1y ago
    I got the warning when I shared, but I think it's ostensibly a security/privacy measure that users can toggle on and off. Anyways, here's a more direct source that should be publicly accessible, the prior was my first encounter with it. https://bsky.app/profile/robertandrewp.bsky.social/post/3log46xj5nk2q https://bsky.app/profile/robertandrewp.bsky.social/post/3log...
cool_dude85 1y ago
It's something that I think has been bubbling up for a while. I've heard a lot of complaints from people in and around the industry, and the complaints are a lot less about Ne Zha 2 and more about stuff that used to be filmed in Hollywood being filmed in Canada instead for cost purposes.
- datavirtue 1y ago
  Cool, whatever organic market activities need to take place to make products cheaper is ok by the real gods of sacred capitalism. Trump is acting more and more like an irrational communist dictator each day.
  - cool_dude85 1y ago
    I think tax credits in other countries have a lot to do with the consideration here, so it's not like a free market paradise situation as-is.
rafram 1y ago
I had never heard of Ne Zha 2, but a quick search shows that it only had a limited release in the US and made a tiny $20 million at the box office. Unlikely that Trump is making decisions based on that.
- brohee 1y ago
  What is your source, I get $2 billions at the box office, which is indeed a triumph.
  - rafram 1y ago
    That’s globally, not in the US. It was barely released in the US at all.

bananapub 1y ago

It bodes very badly for everyone that the entire Republican Party is fine with having an entire federal government policy based on the random TV-driven whims of a bitter, broken and clearly ailing old man. Would they even try to stop him pushing the button?

csomar 1y ago
It is not random. These are not some lucky people who got the lead of the world most powerful country. These are targeted at blue states/demographics. This should have been obvious from Section 174(c)(3) but somehow everyone seems oblivious to it?
- latexr 1y ago
  > This should have been obvious from Section 174(c)(3) but somehow everyone seems oblivious to it? If you want to change that, i.e. make people aware of it, don’t just name the section; link to it and briefly explain what it is and why people should be against it. Even doing just one of those three would help your cause.
  - nobody9999 1y ago
    >If you want to change that, i.e. make people aware of it, don’t just name the section; link to it and briefly explain what it is and why people should be against it. Even doing just one of those three would help your cause. I'm not sure why this (Section 174(c)(3)) [0] is relevant to our discussion in any way, but here it is for everyone's perusal: >(3) Software development > >For purposes of this section, any amount paid or incurred >in connection with >the development of any software shall >be treated as a research or experimental >expenditure. [0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/174 Edit: Fixed quote formatting.
datavirtue 1y ago
No, they very much want the button.
1y ago

pluc 1y ago

Defund education then defund culture. Sounds exactly like America First/America Only. Next up is propaganda and filling Americans' minds with only what he wants you to know. He can flood the media as he's been flooding the government, all the pieces are in play. Still nobody putting up a meaningful fight. Your window is closing.

solumunus 1y ago
What would a meaningful fight look like?
- pluc 1y ago
  Look at Georgia, look at Serbia, look at the Arab Spring. Look at your constitution! There is a part in there about resistance to oppression you seem to only use to defend the wrong things.
  - adamors 1y ago
    Did you look at Georgia and Serbia yourself? Protests have been ongoing for months, government doesn't care.
    - pluc 1y ago
      They don't have armed revolution enshrined in their constitution
      - ToValueFunfetti 1y ago
        If arms are the important component, what wrong things are you saying we exclusively use that part of the constitution to defend? I don't think that part is used for much else
        pluc 1y ago
        The only time you hear of the second amendment is to justify having guns after a massacre. Yet here we are, literally a textbook case of it, and crickets. I'm against guns and gun violence, but Americans aren't.

xz18r 1y ago

I live in Belgium. It feels like 95% of all films I ever hear about are American. Opponents counter MAGA with 'America was never great', but here they'll say 'Movies have never left America'?

asib 1y ago
Movies are overwhelmingly made _by_ American studios but I don't know if they are overwhelmingly _made_ (shot) in the US. It's very common to shoot in a location that gives tax incentives. E.g. Vancouver used to be (potentially still is) a common production location.
- genocidicbunny 1y ago
  Vancouver and Toronto were very often used as stand-ins for shows based in places like Chicago, Seattle, NYC and many others. Might still be, but I barely consume that sort of media nowadays. It made watching TV shows like Stargate SG1 additionally amusing though -- every planet they visited was basically some location near Vancouver. Me and friends used to joke about how much like carcinisation is a thing in evolution, in the Stargate universe all planets eventually ended up looking like British Columbia.
  - a2tech 1y ago
    An argument could be made that the Ancients built Stargate's in places they wanted to go/were comfortable for them, and those areas were like BC
    - genocidicbunny 1y ago
      Iirc, either Carter or Daniel Jackson pretty much said something along those lines in one of the later seasons. Not the BC part specifically, but about why stargates were usually on planets pretty comfortable for humans. But the overarching point is that even shows where at least one of the actors (RDA) were given an award by the US Air Force for their depiction of the branch, were largely filmed outside the US.

seydor 1y ago

it s impressive that , despite the US deciding to self-implode there is nobody willing to step in to compete for their place. It's as if the species has culturally peaked after its demographic peak. Europe is already in retirement and US seems to follow. Maybe we'll see African dynamism in a few decades

gus_massa 1y ago
China?
- 7thaccount 1y ago
  China is in a similar problem to South Korea where pretty soon they'll be in a rapid population decline. Or so some have been saying. I believe their official census data supports this.
beardyw 1y ago
> step in to compete Not sure how that looks - probably starts with not imposing tariffs.
matwood 1y ago
> there is nobody willing to step in to compete for their place China has been stepping on a number fronts. They are working on trade deals that exclude the US, and I'm sure are excited about the soft power vacuum left when USAID shutdown.
- WinstonSmith84 1y ago
  Maybe?.. If China had some sort of open minded Taiwanese government instead of the CCP, the US would be already buried by now. The problem of China, besides its concerning demography, is the authoritarian regime and its expansion views, which are both not very appealing for many Asian neighbors and Europeans.
  - akudha 1y ago

littlestymaar 1y ago

Not only are the US the biggest film exporter in the world by far, with Hollywood being a pillar of American soft power, but you can't even apply “tariff” to movies as it is IP, not physical goods (on which tariffs apply). Sure you can imagine schemes to tax these anyway, but that's a huge can of worms to open for the US, are they are net exporters of everything IP related. The EU has been struggling with base evasion and profit shifting (BEPS) from US companies because it was all about IP and they never dared to tax it in fear of upsetting the US government. But if the move comes from the US first, then they will follow suite with a lot of enthusiasm.

iszomer 1y ago
What about the context of IP content piracy between countries?
- bilekas 1y ago
  Can you give any examples of IP piracy (outside of China) because IP in the US doesn't automatically transfer outside the US, they need to be registered in other regions also..
  - iszomer 1y ago
    Sure, my wasted youth buying VCD's that turned out to be shitty telesync/cam rips.
dragonwriter 1y ago
> but you can't even apply “tariff” to movies as it is IP, not physical goods (on which tariffs apply A government can apply tariffs to any exchange it chooses, but movies are explicitly excluded from the law on which Trump has relied for tariffs, so short of getting a new law passed to authorize movie tariffs, there is no legal authority.
- littlestymaar 1y ago
  > A government can apply tariffs to any exchange it chooses My point is that it can apply taxes equivalent to tariffs (well, like you said, only Congress can), but since it's not going to be defined by the same law or be regulated by the same international conventions and isn't going to be collected by the same administration nor from the same people (the tax will be raised on the retailer directly, unlike tariffs), I think it's fair not to call that “tariffs” since it's really going to be a very different type of tax.

misja111 1y ago

Was the USA's movie industry really under threat from abroad? In my local cinema here in Europe the great majority of popular movies is American .. To me this move seems more a kind of cultural censorship. Similar to how many foreign movies can't be shown in Russia or China.

ur-whale 1y ago
That's not what this is about. Most American movies are shot outside of the US these days because among other factors Hollywood unions have made it way more expensive to shoot in the US.
- notTooFarGone 1y ago
  Finally: movie adaptions of paris are done in vegas.
- gtirloni 1y ago
  > That's not what this is about. Of course. It's clearly about the fentanyl emergency.
  - bilekas 1y ago
    Think of the children! The foreign movies might expose them to something other than American English!
- beardyw 1y ago
  So movie tickets go up either way.
- misja111 1y ago
  Well these were the words from the horse's mouth: “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” To me this seems to motivate the tariffs as a battle against foreign propaganda.

Ekaros 1y ago

Great way to kill one of the product categories that you do not have trade deficit in...

skylurk 1y ago
Yup! Software next.
- bilbo0s 1y ago
  To be fair, even the EU can be expected to enact regulations calibrated to decrease American dominance in the tech sector at this point. So if Trump tariffs don’t take down US software. I’m certain new regulations around the world will take US software down in any case.

jarym 1y ago

Yes this man was democratically elected. There didn’t seem to be a particularly appealing set of options for the electorate. As an outsider it seems a lot like groups pulling the political levers in the US only ensure candidates that can be ‘handled’ are put forward and those that can’t will be rooted out. That’s why the choice was between braindead Biden vs deranged Trump. And when it was clear Biden wasn’t an option, a belated shift to try sell Kamala to the electorate. I don’t think we’ll see strong presidential candidates - those clearly motivated to better the country and its citizens - in the near future either. The process now seems to suit the corporate and lobby groups who jostle to get their share of influence.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
datavirtue 1y ago
This. Some things are going very wrong for the body politic.
latexr 1y ago
> There didn’t seem to be a particularly appealing set of options for the electorate. I mean, there was one candidate who fawns over dictators, is a felon, always acts in his own personal interest, and had very public plans to try to dismantle democracy and seize ultimate power. Then there was another who would at worst continue the status quo and not try to overthrow the government. It feels ridiculous to claim there was no appealing option. It’s like being given the option between losing both arms or being slapped in the face and shrugging that none of the options is appealing. At least try to pick the least unappealing.
- jarym 1y ago
  > at worst continue the status quo That’s what you have spelled out but failed to appreciate the significance of. For a chunk of the electorate the status quo wasn’t working for them. I see from all the down votes people seem blind to this. The ‘status quo’ may have been fine for you hence why you think that was better to continue…

llm_nerd 1y ago

Trump is likely saying this because the new Prime Minister of Canada is visiting tomorrow, and Canada has been fairly successful building a "Hollywood North" industry -- lots of good filming locations, lots of talents that are indistinguishable from Americans, and tax credits on top. This is 100% targeted at Canada, and trying to threaten destroying the Canadian film industry as another lever against Canada. And it is laughably silly. Even in Canada alone, "Hollywood" nets far more than it ever spends here[1]. And of course worldwide media is something that the US has an enormous trade surplus. It's yet another harebrained bit of nonsense from the extremely smooth, simpleton mind of Trump and his greasy used-car salesman, carnival barker Howard Lutnick. What Trump is really achieving in all of these declarations is making the rest of the world ask why do we accept Hollywood controlling the film or music industry, or Silicon Valley controlling the tech industry, or NYC the financial industry, etc? The end result of this is going to be massive decentralization and lowered importance of US industry leadership. [1] Not to mention that the tax credits quite literally subsidizes the industry. And FWIW, I am wholly against tax credits for film productions, and much like paying a sports team to build a stadium, the accounting of the supposed benefit just doesn't make any sense.

llm_nerd 1y ago
And indeed, Howard "Barking Carnival Huckster" Nutlick went on Fox News to attack Canada having a film industry. It is exactly what I said. One of the most amazing things about the Idiocracy administration in place in the US is this belief that everything is the domain of Americans, and if any other nation is doing it, clearly they're stealing it. Canada had an automotive industry as long as the US did. We used to have the AutoPact before NAFTA, and we need to bring it back. Canada has a robust film industry on its own. So when Howard Nutlick does his embarrassing "why does Canada make our films" act, there is a point there -- zero US media should be allowed into Canada. None. All IP rights on US products should be abolished. All patents and other.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

incomingpain 1y ago

Vancouver and toronto just had a heart attack. london UK and berlin probably far less impacted. elbows up! Though i dont recommend continuing to antagonize trump even more because it's just triggering his ego and making him retaliate.

n1b0m 1y ago
China stood up to his tariffs and he was forced to reverse some of them.
- incomingpain 1y ago
  In 2020 he reversed some? I dont believe he has reversed anything in 2025. The de minimis revocation and decoupling level tariffs means china-usa trade is over. There was no standing up. He did have to reverse on CUSMA protected trade to avoid lawsuits. He's now targeting non-cusma protected trade.
  - Tepix 1y ago
    Well, he did exclude a lot of electronics from the tariffs, even for china.

ujkhsjkdhf234 1y ago

How do you tariff a movie?

zirgs 1y ago
A tariff is a tax - so additional tax on BDs, DVDs, cinema tickets, etc. It's stupid, but it's possible to implement it.
ceejayoz 1y ago
Same way you reopen Alcatraz. You don’t, and hope he forgets about it.

mk89 1y ago

I am so looking forward to the sequel of Rome ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(TV_series) ), filmed in Georgia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Georgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Georgia). Or the new Lord of The Rings in the Grand Canyon... :)

mseepgood 1y ago
Or the remake of 'Paris, Texas' filmed in ..., oh.
stingraycharles 1y ago
It’s about the country it’s produced in, not the country it’s recorded in, though?
- maeln 1y ago
  For now, there is no executive order or anything, so what he means by 'produced in' is anyone guess. Might also be just an announcement that will not end up in anything concrete. Wouldn't be the first time, wouldn't be the last.
  - richrichardsson 1y ago
    There is no rational thought going into Trump's social media output. I swear he has a set of 6 tiny books just the right size for his hands, each with 6 pages and on each page there are 6 categories of things. He's rolls a dice 3 times to pick a category then a final one to pick from the list of 6 tariff levels to be applied. Then when somone wakes up to see whatever unhinged shit he posted "this time" and realises how abjectly stupid it is, the whole things gets unwound. If any journalist dares mention it again then it was just "trolling the fake news media" and was never meant seriously.
- mk89 1y ago
  Then I misunderstood, I guess... Why would it be more expensive to produce it in the US, then? I thought one of the reasons for making the movie "abroad" was to get some subsidies from other countries "if you film it here", kind of.

hello_computer 1y ago

[flagged]

buyucu 1y ago
Chinese movies are getting better and better. I watched Detective Dee recently and enjoyed it a lot.

jparishy 1y ago

The filmmaking industry is constantly flying productions all over the world to avoid paying US labor. Waste of time, money, energy. And the saved money isn't given back to the people making the movie, the unions are still constantly fighting with the industry for basic asks. I don't see a problem here, this is what tariffs are actually for. Broken clock is right twice a day yada yada eta: one can not like the man and not think this is a bad idea. same as we don't need more dolls from china and it's weird for us to suddenly die on that hill. /shrug

nobunaga 1y ago
[flagged]
- jparishy 1y ago
  i don't ask ppl who they voted for because i've learned it's not a good signal on whether they are nice or a good person. life is complicated. i didn't vote for trump though, so at least this village idiot has a clean conscience and just isn't interested in reliving 2017
investa 1y ago
Right, wait till all other countries tariff US movies. Again it is another US thing is more expensive for the average human on Earth scenario. Good luck with that.
- jparishy 1y ago
  It's about the production of movies, not the distribution of movies. I don't think people in this thread are reading the article. The original title of this submission didn't help.
  - victorbjorklund 1y ago
    But you agree that EU should tariff any movie produced in US, right?

steveBK123 1y ago

Guy is mad at seeing too many subtitled films on NFLX

jhfdbkofdchk 1y ago
Doesn't realize he has closed captioning turned on.
mensetmanusman 1y ago
This is more about placating the union workers.
- steveBK123 1y ago
  I doubt he cares about any (generally) blue state/city/industry union workers as much as he cares about some random business leader with a vested interest in this outcome that talked to him this weekend.

jansan 1y ago

Europe should counter this with 500% tariffs. I (being German) really want to see a comeback of French cinema.

orwin 1y ago
You probably won't. French cinema is americanizing. Good movies are still made, but 'les 3 mousquetaires' showed that most huge french productions are poor copies of 2000 era Ridley Scott (well, Ridley Scott himself make poor copies of his 2000-era films). 'Le Comte de Monte Cristo' was better (way better), but the colour filters,the lack of sound (or the music too loud and too epic), the useless sword fight and the 'reading letter' trick, all inspired by Hollywood action movies pushed it down from Good movie to 'almost as bad as Marvel' imho. And the dialogs not inspired from the book are as expected, but that's modern cinema, not Hollywood in particular. That noone took the torch from Audiard or Prevert is a shame.
- thrance 1y ago
  Most blockbusters look alike, it doesn't matter where they come from. I don't think a German asking for more "French cinema" asks for more big-budget French movies, as those offer nothing more than American ones. I think they meant more auteur productions like those of the New Wave.

habosa 1y ago

The MAGA people attacking Hollywood is such a big mistake. Yes I know the average celebrity doesn’t share their views, but that doesn’t change the fact that Hollywood projects American culture around the world in a way that the government could never do itself. Movies and music made here are so often cited as the reason why young people around the world idealize America and want to emulate us (buy our clothes, speak English, etc) It’s the cultural equivalent of being the world’s reserve currency, it’s a massive free advantage in almost any situation. Stupid stupid stupid to threaten it.

earthcreed 1y ago
You do understand this is a move to protect Hollywood, Right? It is for the very reasons you cited.
- _aavaa_ 1y ago
  In the domestic market maybe, but I think their point is that it will severely hurt Hollywood abroad.
- brookst 1y ago
  By “protect” you mean “roll back to the 1950’s”, righ? Because Hollywood today was doing quite well and I don’t think I’ve heard a single industry source asking for this. IMO the other shoe here is stronger content restrictions and more government control of what gets made. Easier to do that with US productions, hence the attempt to make everything distributed in the US a US production.
  - jparishy 1y ago
    Who isn't asking for something to bring more production home? Studio execs? People in LA, ATL, etc want to work, and every year there is less and less jobs below the line in the US, even though there's more productions overall paid for by US companies. This sentiment you're talking about is at least not universal
    - 1y ago

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trebligdivad 1y ago

Soon he'll want Wallace & Gromit with American humour.

jaimebuelta 1y ago

Not sure I follow. Biggest real action movie last year was “Deadpool & Wolverine”, a Disney movie which was shot in UK and made a bit over 50% of its revenue overseas[1]. Its main stars were Canadian and Australian. Does this mean that you’ll have to pay double to go watch it to cinemas in the US? Will that make Disney to focus on the international market? [1] https://the-numbers.com/movie/Deadpool-and-Wolverine-(2024) https://the-numbers.com/movie/Deadpool-and-Wolverine-(2024)

DeusExMachina 1y ago
Since it's about movies produced overseas, I don't think the nationality of the actors or the overseas revenue counts. But it probaby counts that it was shot in the UK. The reason why Disney does that is because they get tax breaks from the UK government, which I think it's what Trump is referring to.
- dom96 1y ago
  So let me get this straight... he's not happy with the UK because of VAT (value added tax) and he's also not happy with the UK because of tax breaks? Amazing.
  - JCharante 1y ago
    I think there's a big difference between VAT for consumer goods and cities providing big incentives for filming there. I'm not giving an opinion on whether they're good or bad, just saying that they're very different and I don't think they should be compared.
  - kjksf 1y ago
    Both are harming US jobs. VAT is bad for US because a car made in US is 22% more expensive when sold in UK than a car made in UK sold in US. VAT makes it harder for US car company to sell in UK. It reduces number of US jobs making cars. UK giving tax breaks to US companies also reduces number of US jobs because a catering business in Los Angeles loses a job to a catering business in London. So does a carpenter, an extra etc. It's all simple to understand, consistent and frankly very leftist.

jpambrun 1y ago

Not sure how you even tarif movies. I guess Netflix will receive bills based on viewership? Anyway, as usual other countries will retaliate. American movies will become both more expensive to make and taxed abroad. Meanwhile, we can expect more people will turn to piracy to cope with rising inflation. I can't imagine any scenario where this isn't backfiring.

criddell 1y ago
The tariff would apply when Netflix pays for the distribution rights to a movie or TV show.
- jpambrun 1y ago
  My uninformed assumption is that most licencing arrangement have per viewer component? Not just a lump sum that can be taxed once?
  - criddell 1y ago
    I don't think so. Netflix guards viewership numbers like they are nuclear secrets.

thrance 1y ago

Is no one in this administration willing/able to deter the senile old man in charge from worsening the situation through new tariffs? I mean, don't get me wrong, this is music to my ears. Ever since I became an accelerationist last november, I cheer every time I see them pour oil on the fire.

bilbo0s 1y ago
Huh? If they disagreed with him, they would have already left the administration. So of course no one on Trumps team wants to stop trump.
- thrance 1y ago
  Sure, but what about the oligarchs that put him in place, the Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Thiel... ?
  - stevenwoo 1y ago
    Only Musk got some of his acolytes in the administration and that is only the grunts doing the dirty work at DOGE.
jfengel 1y ago
They're the ones suggesting the tariffs. Last time he let himself be surrounded by people with experience from other administrations. They frequently ran interference. This time he's doing it his way. It's not as if this is unexpected. He said what he was going to do. This is what the voters voted for, and his constituents support him.

croes 1y ago

So movies will get more expensive and studios will do less. Seems like Trump is the best ally for all those who want to reduce US influence in the world.

LatteLazy 1y ago

A lot of films are produced in the uk, so this should mean no trade deal. It won’t of course but there you are…

victorbjorklund 1y ago

I'm sure some in EU loves this. Many politicans in EU wants an excuse to prop up european cinema and this will give them the perfect excuse.

aaron695 1y ago

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rizs12 1y ago

Any chance Trump could do this for software 'produced in foreign lands'?

epolanski 1y ago
100% tariff on Linux, we can't have swedes control american software.
- victorbjorklund 1y ago
  Sweden or Finland? Well, since I'm Swedish I wont complain.

d3nj4l 1y ago

This makes no sense and people are giving it too much credit. What does “produced” mean? How do you “tariff” a movie? When is the movie crossing the border and who’s doing the valuation, customs check, and so on? There’s literally no substance to this and people are tying themselves into knots to make sense of this.

peder 1y ago
There are things to sort out, but it's certainly doable. They can probably use direct COGS to determine the tariff basis.
- Majromax 1y ago
  > There are things to sort out, but it's certainly doable. They can probably use direct COGS to determine the tariff basis. You could construct a variety of accounting methods to calculate a tax on the 'foreign content' of movies, but how do you actually impose this tax? A tariff on physical goods is easy. A country requires that goods enter the country through customs facilities, and then the nice customs official doesn't release the thing until the tax is paid. The legal and physical ability to impose these taxes is long, long established. How do you physically impose a tariff on a movie? If the master is transported physically, what is its value? The value of the fixed copy/master doesn't necessarily include the value of the IP involved, in the same way that a DVD of a $500 million movie might have a retail value of $20. What about movies transferred digitally, since there are no customs checkpoints on fiber-optic lines? What legal apparatus would be used to impose this tax? Trump is currently getting away with the physical-goods tariffs because the legal infrastructure to collect the taxes is already in place, and remaining legal disputes are just about whether the President can unilaterally set or change tariff rates. If you'd need new law to "tariff movies," then the chance of this whim turning into a real tax drops sharply.
TechDebtDevin 1y ago
VAT is what America wants but they literally dont know the word theyre looking for.
nxobject 1y ago

Buttons840 1y ago

Do you want a European version of Netflix to be cheaper (in the US)? Because this is how you make foreign websites cheaper. The Trump admin seems to be hastening the day that foreign website are more popular than US websites.

Tepix 1y ago
They will just outlaw them. Look at Tiktok or even Deepseek.

bilekas 1y ago

Was something actually been written up or is this just some rally ranting ? Because I would love to read the National Security justification for imposing a tariff on foreign movies. In fact I'm sure some US companies are gonna be hit by this such as Netflix ? Disney ?

Reubachi 1y ago
This is; 1. Media spin or early reporting, it is nothing in stone yet. This should be the understanding for any "new policy" announced m-f for this admin. 2. Even if it is to be set in stone, likely will be rescinded. 3. It is vague on purpose ^ 4. Assuming it becomes set in ston, it is a direct pander to Disney, Universal etc. from the current admin. Chinese film making (animation in particular) is now outperforming Disney in every metric in every market. 5. Disney et all. stand to lose either way. This is capitalism at work and american film studios will see costs skyrocket as local and foreign competitors silo resources.
SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
So far only the dictatorial threat has been made. The Secretary of Commerce says he’s working on it, so presumably he’ll fabricate a justification for it soon.

drooopy 1y ago

We're really close to him issuing an executive order demanding that crops be watered with Gatorade, aren't we?

Der_Einzige 1y ago

Given how much modern actors and related are freaking out about AI (despite holding "egalitarian" social views), I'm more than happy to see them destroyed. Very bad for US soft-power but great for helping gut hollywood faster. Huge amounts of the top brass of hollywood are disgusting. Tom Cruise and the rest of Scientologies leadership should be in prison right now, and that's just one tiny example of the sea of shit found in hollywood.

supertimor 1y ago
This is a bit reductionist. While I agree that there are some out of touch and terrible people in powerful positions in Hollywood, a ton of average working class people rely on Hollywood to make a living (i.e. catering, film crews, manufacturers, retail, etc). It’s like saying that the entire tech industry should be destroyed and screw all the tech workers, they should all lose their jobs because Zuckerberg is an awful person. I agree with you that Scientology is a criminal organization though.

perihelions 1y ago

Does the First Amendment preclude the US from imposing prohibitive taxes on media? It'd be clearly unconstitutional to ban them outright; so, where and how's that line drawn? late edit: I just want to note the text of POTUS' announcement includes this: "It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!" The overtly expressed motive here is animus towards the content of the speech (not some content-neutral factor like trade balances).

intellectronica 1y ago

Someone needs to tell Trump about BitTorrent.

alistairSH 1y ago

Will this simply drive studios to produce with an even heavier eye towards the Chinese market? There’s a nugget of truth to Hollywood moving production overseas, but I’m not convinced a massive tariff will have the effect Trump wants. Just like all his other economic fuckery.

codingbot3000 1y ago

As a side note, why does he only get ~21k likes on Truth Social for his post? https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114452117143235155 https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1144521171432... What is going on there? Why don't they fix the likes for him? :-D

the_duke 1y ago

It's not just "evil greedy production companies want to save money", as some other comments imply. There is EU regulation requiring that 30% of content available on streaming services for European customers are "European works". The definition is a bit complicated, but this is definitely a big part of why plenty of production has moved to Europe and the UK. If this goes through it could bring some problems for Netflix et al. They can always artificially restrict the low-value content content from customers in EU countries though. As if the arcane licensing and availability landscape wasn't crazy enough for media... (See the "Audiovisual Media Services Directive")

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apexalpha 1y ago

I don't get it? How many non-US movies does the US even import? I can't think of any country that the US imports more movies from than it exports? Even if you believe in tariffs what industry in America does this protect that needs protection? Of is he gambling on recipritoral tarrifs to 'punish' the liberal Hollywood???? Sounds conspiracy-like but I legit can't think of any other reason this makes sense.

_3u10 1y ago

How does one tariff a movie? It’s not like because it’s made in Australia that the blue rays are shipped through there? Not that anyone uses blue rays, like at what point does a movie go through customs

pcurve 1y ago

For movies that have heavy CGI / blue screen reliance, it is almost irrelevant where it is actually shot.

Bluestrike2 1y ago

I realize it's just another hair-brained scheme likely cooked up on the porcelain throne, but part of me is curious about how exactly they'd implement this train wreck. Since Trump is relying on declarations of national emergencies for his tariffs, there's the question whether it's even legal given that Berman Amendments to the IEEPA[0] explicitly exempt "informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, *films*, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds" from the President's authority under IEEPA.[1] Even if we set that aside and ignore the likely legal challenges, how would you actually implement them? It's not like a movie or TV episode "produced" overseas gets transmitted into the US each time somebody wants to watch it. It's a digital file, and you're really only sending it once. So when do you tariff the damn thing, how do you manage to actually do it since there's not exactly a literal port of entry for the internet, and what exactly do you value it at? The system isn't built to track and tariff info being uploaded to random servers, and making it work would require all sorts of new law. Plus, what's the legal definition of "production" he wants to use? What constitutes foreign production? Can some of the producing just be done remotely? What if raw footage is uploaded instead and then it's edited here? Or a nearly finished copy that just needs something minor done to be considered ready? Hollywood accountants are in a league of their own. Put them in a room with lawyers and accountants whose focus is the creative eccentricities of tariff engineering--hello, chicken tax people[0]--and I shudder to imagine what they'd get up to. We're only a few months in at this point, and I feel like I'm losing my mind. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Economic_Powers_Act#Curtailment_of_emergency_executive_powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Emergency_Econom... 1. https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/2333/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/2333... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

kjksf 1y ago

Maybe people should first understand the context of this. Apparently, here's the data: California is losing its grip on the film industry as Canada, the UK, and Australia outspend the U.S. on production subsidies. LA’s soundstage occupancy dropped to 90% pre-strikes, while Warner Brothers and Netflix ramp up overseas filming. Even a $3.75 billion tax credit boost might not be enough to keep Hollywood on top. Meanwhile, Vancouver is adding 20 new soundstages, and UK productions hit a record $7 billion. Here's Ben Affleck talking about this: https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/entertainment/ben-affleck-criticizes-california-for-taking-the-film-and-tv-industry-for-granted-as-productions-leave-the-state/ https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/entertainment/ben-affleck-crit..., https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1913449981643456612 https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1913449981643456612 Here's Adam Scott and Rob Lowe talking about it: https://x.com/medx0/status/1919178518031896903 https://x.com/medx0/status/1919178518031896903 Basically it seems that movie production and jobs created by it moved outside of US in a massive way. Hence the leftist tarrifs meant to reverse that and bring movie production back in US

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guerrilla 1y ago
Leftist?
r00fus 1y ago
Yeah, Trump's a real leftist!
fxd123 1y ago
> leftist tarrifs huh?

zelias 1y ago

The rumor I heard is that Trump watched _Escape From Alcatraz_ over the weekend, which resulted in this decree in addition to the "we are reopening Alcatraz" decree

SpacePortKnight 1y ago

Next up, all software produced in foreign lands would be subject to tariffs.

sagebird 1y ago

Wes Anderson is positioning cinematographers on American soil with extremely powerful telephoto lenses, filming actors performing in meticulously designed miniature sets across the Canadian border. The film will be titled "The Asymmetrical Tax Avoidance" and will star Bill Murray as a customs agent with daddy issues.

bazoom42 1y ago

This might have an interesting effect on the kind of movies produced in the US. Presumably other countries will hit American movies with reciprocal tariffs which will hurt the international market for Hollywood. But some genres play much better internationally than others. We might see a decline in fantasy and action blockbusters and a resurgence in wordy comedies and baseball movies.

aceazzameen 1y ago

What's Trump's agenda? Kiss the ring and we'll waive your tariffs? In what form will Hollywood be asked to kiss the ring here? More pro maga content? Pro maga actors? Remove "woke" content?

r00fus 1y ago
You got it. All he ever does is shakedowns.

IAmGraydon 1y ago

Yeah good luck with that. The statute that gives presidents emergency tariff powers explicitly exempts movies. > The authority granted to the President by this section does not include the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly [...] the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, of any information or informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1702 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1702

emrah 1y ago

Tariffs are effectively paid by the buyer, unless the seller reduces prices to counteract the tariff, which ain't gonna happen, so what is Trump trying to do, bankrupt us all? #angryface#

enaaem 1y ago

It's time for Bollywood movies to made in America.

newswangerd 1y ago

Does anyone have any idea what this looks like in practice? How do you put a tariff what essentially amounts to information?