It’s a busy start to the week for Donald Trump. On Monday, the president sat down at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hoping to persuade him to embrace his plan to end the war in Gaza. Later that same afternoon, he met with the top four leaders in Congress, looking to reach a deal to fund the government and avert a shutdown before a Sept. 30 deadline. And yet as the morning began, Trump took to social media with a fresh wave of threats to impose tariffs on films made outside the U.S.
On Truth Social, the president wrote that the “movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby’,” adding that he would be “imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside the U.S.”
Studios and streamers were caught off-guard by the missive. The White House had made no effort to contact them or the Motion Picture Association ahead of the announcement, which mirrors an earlier threat that Trump made last May. They are still uncertain about how to respond to Trump’s message and remain privately skeptical that he will make good on his promise, noting that the president dropped the subject last spring amid questions about how a tariff would be imposed on a film, which is a “service” and not a “good” like cars, steel, aluminum and other things that are subject to new tariffs.
“He’s the president, so you have to treat it seriously, but people are mostly just confused by this,” said one studio executive.
The Motion Picture Association declined to comment, but sources said a board meeting was already scheduled for Tuesday. Trump’s tariffs are expected to be on the agenda as MPA board members and entertainment leaders like Disney’s Alan Bergman, Amazon MGM’s Mike Hopkins and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley convene for a quarterly discussion. Members of the studio’s government relations teams were expected to speak at some point on Monday, according to one studio source, who noted that such talks routinely happen.
The global filmmaking community has responded to Donald Trump’s renewed threats about imposing tariffs on films made outside the U.S. with a mix of concern, confusion, indifference and more than a splash of disdain.
It’s unknown what sparked Trump’s latest declaration, which arrived less than five months after he similarly declared that he would be imposing 100% tariffs on films made outside the U.S. That earlier announcement — also made on social media — came without any details about how the levies would be enforced and which productions they would impact. Since then, no policy has come into effect.
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“When Trump sent out a tweet a couple of months ago, details were never provided. How do you tariff something like a movie? Who ultimately gets charged for the tariff? says entertainment lawyer Stephen Weizenecker of Barnes & Thornburg. “But this is his second time talking about it, so I imagine he has something he’s working on.”
However, whereas the initial suggestion sent much of the international industry into a tailspin as producers, sales agents, distributors and more attempted to pick apart what it meant for the film business, this time it was largely met with an exhaustive eyeroll or, in some cases, expletives.
“It’s just hot air again. It’s his brand of Looney Tunes,” British producer and co-managing director of Head Gear Films, Phil Hunt, tells Variety. “I can’t see it helping North America. He doesn’t understand the detail of film being a global business.”
The White House, for its part, did not respond to multiple requests for comment and clarification.
Kayvan Mashayekh, the head of Producers Without Borders, a network of international producers, understands the “frustration” over runaway shoots but says the application of the tariffs “leaves much to be desired since it’s never ever so black and white.”
Indeed, with moviemaking becoming increasingly global, more and more U.S. filmmakers — from Kristen Stewart to Jim Jarmusch and James Gray, to name a few — are working with European producers and financiers, so the nationality of films is becoming an obsolete concept. Many major studio blockbusters, including the next two “Avengers” films, the third “Dune” film and HBO’s “Harry Potter” series, have moved to production hubs in the United Kingdom, Hungary and other European countries that offer richer subsidies than the United States. Shooting a film in California, for instance, can add tens of millions to the budget, making studios hesitant to make movies in the same state where they are headquartered.
French producer Charles Gillibert — whose recent work includes the Angelina Jolie-led “Coutures” and Stewart’s debut “The Chronology of Water,” all of which shot across Europe — believes Trump’s tariffs would “condemn the work to never being made.” Gillibert thinks the potential tariff will hurt arthouse films more than major studio tentpoles.
“The current cost of filming in the United States does not allow certain auteur films that aren’t commercial vehicles to be made there,” he said. “It is partly this auteur cinema that is targeted by this law, because those films are made by artists who have a freedom of expression vis-à-vis the U.S. industry and its politics.”
Ironically, many of the artists who would be the most hurt by the tariffs are also the biggest ambassador of American cinema around the world. Jarmusch, for instance, just won the Golden Lion at Venice with “Father Mother Sister Brother,” which mostly shot in Ireland and France.
“If the president really wanted to help the American film industry — and help to create more American jobs — he would work with Congress to create national programs to incentivize production in the U.S. that rival the programs that exist in Europe and around the world,” says Joshua Astrachan, a New York-based producer on “Father Mother Sister Brother.”
For Raphael Benoliel, a leading line producer and executive producer who has worked numerous U.S. productions in France, including “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” and “Emily in Paris,” maintains there’s no point in becoming alarmist until anything more formal has been unveiled.
“Right now, we have to have a wait-and-see approach because the man tends to backtrack on his announcements,” he said. “He likes to create chaos, but I like to be patient and serene.”
Northern Irish producer Trevor Birney, behind the BAFTA-winning hit “Kneecap,” was more succinct in his response to Trump. “Go fuck yourself! Again!” he said. As for the reasoning for the latest outburst, he suggested it was prompted by recent U.S. sporting failures. “Trump obviously didn’t take the Ryder Cup loss very well!”
Rebecca Rubin contributed to this report.
From Variety US