Because Trump wants to impose 100% duties on foreign films (and what consequences there will be)

In the last hours Donald Trump He was busy. In addition to having announced the reopening of the Alcatraz prison, he shared on his Truth profile (social network developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group company) the news of the increase of one hundred percent of duties on foreign films. “The American film industry is dying very quickly. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentive to attract our directors and our studios », reads the post of the President of the United States, which finds in the effort to move and concentrate the productions of the filmmakers in other shores a real threat to national security. “In addition to everything else, these are messaging and propaganda!” The post continues. «Therefore, I authorize the Department of Commerce and the United States Commerce Representative to immediately start the institution process of a 100% rate on all the films that arrive in our country And that are produced in foreign lands ».

How much does America produce abroad?

There is no doubt that, in recent years, the number of productions that have sought incentives and funding abroad have found excellent feedback on an economic level, moving the production outside the United States, to the delight of other countries that welcomed some of the greatest titles on the American panorama. Just think of a giant like Marvel: the last Thunderbolt* He was shot only between New York and Utah, but several times it has happened that the superheroes of Kevin Feige traveled for the old continent, from Germany which was a place of filming for the team-up of the The Avengers up to the most recent series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Exit in 2021.

The same Italy has made sets to Tom Cruise and its unruly challenges for the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning of 2023, also giving a hand to the Belpaese in a period of uncertainty and restrictions after the Covid-19 pandemic. Not to mention Australia and his Disney Studios who welcomed some of the blockbusters deemed peak in 2024 (The Fall Guy, the kingdom of the planet of the monkeys And Furious) or, returning to Europe, with Hungary and its average of productions that stands around 250 in a year – also winning the Oscars, such as the three conquered by The brutalist by Brady Corbet.

100% duties on foreign films by Donald Trump: what were the reactions?

That a significant postponement of investments has been obvious, but it is also part of a game of funding and incentives that contribute to the good health of the coffers of the various countries involved, for a conscious and fruitful exchange that regulates questions and offers. And that the representatives of other countries immediately aroused, such as Australian interior minister Tony Burkewho said that “nobody must have doubts that we will fight unequivocally for the rights of the Australian film industry”, or New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxoncalmer and waiting to find out what Trump’s actual intentions will be on the next rates.

Although Trump’s gimmick may be unexpected, his obsession with audiovisual is actually a fixed ball: just think of the attention that before his second term he had placed on cinema and his function – at this point we would say nationalistic. An authentic enrollment by the tycoon of three old stars like Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voightappointed “special” and awarded ambassadors of the task of restoring the alleged crisis faced by Hollywood – also caused there, it would seem, for four years in which the industry would have lost many of its affairs in favor of foreign countries.

Use against China: the film market is increasingly tense

That Donald Trump has noticed a movement of attention by the public and insiders, financial as well as cultural, is possible. But it is the beauty of plurality, which wants a Korean film like in 2020 Parasite conquer the Oscar e The Substance by Carolie Fargaet e Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard, two of the most significant films of the last season of the prizes, both have a French matrix – with France that for audiovisual offers 30% percentage on expenses incurred in the area. The consequences of such a closure, always linked to the practice of duties, is also what He is leading to the major fracture with Chinawhich since the beginning of 2025 made the decision to slow down the import of US films.

And perhaps it would be necessary that someone reminds the president how much the Chinese market can make a difference on the box office and, therefore, on the trend of the film scene in the world. With China became a point of reference for industry and that encourages their local productions So as not to have to depend on territories such as, in fact, the United States. Even with analysts ready to say that the US would have more to lose than to earn from crazy taxes, the message remains fundamental for Donald Trump: “We want the films to be produced again in America!». Luckily in 2025 the cinema seems to have turned towards the Indie, apparently unique solution that could remain at tomorrow’s filmmakers.