The US president claims that Hollywood is suffering a “very fast death” despite raising $300 billion in revenue in 2024.
US President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose 100% tariffs on foreign films, claiming Hollywood is suffering “very fast deaths” due to overseas competition.
In a social media post Sunday, Trump said he had directed the US Department of Commerce and US trade representatives to immediately begin the process of imposing tariffs on “any” films produced on “foreign land.”
“Other countries offer all sorts of incentives to keep filmmakers and studios away from the US. Hollywood and many other parts of the US are devastated,” Trump said on his true social platform.
“This is a coordinated effort by other countries and therefore a national security threat. It is a message and propaganda, in addition to everything else!”
When asked by a reporter about tariffs later on Sunday, Trump claimed that the US is making “very few movies now.”
“Other countries, many of them stole our film industry,” he said. “If they’re not willing to make a movie in the US, we should have tariffs on the films that come in.”
Trump did not elaborate on how such tariffs work in practice, such as whether they apply to Hollywood features, including shooting and production in multiple countries.
Trump’s announcement follows his appointment as “special ambassadors” of actors Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and John Voight in January, and is tasked with reviving Hollywood’s business that he has lost to other countries.
At the time, when Trump began enacting “the Golden Age of Hollywood,” the actor said that the actor would become “my eyes and ears.”
Hollywood has faced tough business conditions in recent years amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the fallout of the 2023 actors and writers strike.
According to Gower Street Analytics, Hollywood Studios sold around $300 billion worldwide last year.
Last year’s performance improved revenues in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but was about 20 below the pre-pandemic average, according to Gower Street Analytics.
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