U.S. President Donald Trump has announced he will impose a 100% tariff on all foreign-made movies, marking an unprecedented extension of his protectionist trade policies into cultural industries.
The move threatens to disrupt Hollywood’s global business model, which relies heavily on international box-office revenue and cross-border co-productions. Trump revealed the plan on his Truth Social platform, claiming American filmmaking is losing ground to international competition.
“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other countries, just like stealing candy from a baby,” he wrote.
It remains unclear what legal authority the president will use to enforce the tariffs. The White House has not provided details on implementation, and major studios including Warner Bros Discovery, Comcast, Paramount Skydance and Netflix declined to comment.
Shares of Netflix slipped 1.5% in early trading following Trump’s announcement.
The president first floated the idea in May, but entertainment executives said they were unsure how such a tariff could apply given the global nature of modern filmmaking, where production, financing, and post-production often span multiple countries.
Analysts have also raised doubts, noting that films are typically treated as intellectual property and part of global services trade — a sector where the U.S. usually runs a surplus. Co-productions with foreign studios further complicate how tariffs might be classified.
Despite skepticism, Trump’s move signals a willingness to extend trade battles into new arenas, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the global film industry.
