US tarrifs on foreign films?

No idea what this means, but is on BBC News:



US President Donald Trump says he will hit movies made in foreign countries with 100% tariffs,*as he ramps up trade disputes with nations around the world.

Trump said he was authorising the US Trade Representative to start the process to impose the levy because America's movie industry was dying "a very fast death".

He blamed a "concerted effort" by other countries that offer incentives to attract filmmakers and studios, which he described as a "National Security threat".

Thai was reported on CNN earlier today as well.
Because this can become political, and because I hate Trump and have nothing but unkind things to say about our Orange Cheeto in charge, and because I don’t want to get banned for or reprimanded and also make things easier on Yoda in general…….I’ll refrain from saying anything else.
Except this is idiotic.
Ok, I’m done.

Streaming?

It's still unclear how tariffs would affect streaming or non current releases. Also I think it's a bad idea from what I can see, but it can be discussed without it becoming political so long as we discuss the actual proposal or any subsequent tariffs without resorting to name calling and ad homimen.

I guess we'll wait and see. I really REALLY hope this wouldn't affect what Criterion Channel and others pay for royalties and rights to stream foreign films.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/05/media...rump-hollywood

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Will I pay a tariff when I am sentenced to Alcatraz for watching Kurusawa?

There are a lot of ships officially registered in Liberia, right?

I just don't see this happening.

Not entirely related to the main topic, but...

Trump says he’s going to reopen Alcatraz prison

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So... would this affect an American produced film made fully or partly in another country? Seems extra confusing if a movie takes place in multiple countries and parts of the movie is filmed on site in those countries?


If so, what's stopping a movie studio from setting up an overseas studio that sells the US studio the rights to show said movie at nothing, so the tariff would be zero? (This was similar to their old trick to make every blockbuster to be considered underwater for sakes of paying anyone working on the film anything in terms of points on net profits).


Or is this targeted purely at movies produced by overseas studios because someone really didn't like a non-English language film (Parasite) winning Best Picture a few years back?

So reading a Reuters article on it...
Yeah, it's about as clear and well thought out as one would expect it to be.


https://www.reuters.com/business/med...ms-2025-05-05/

Claps mouth shut on certain matters (don't wanna break a rule) - will note that this wouldn't be the first time there have been bans or limits or whatever in cinema history. Japan did this with films from the US in the 30s, with a total ban on American film imports in 1937. I recall hearing that England had regulations of some kind way back when, in an attempt to promote viewing of British made movies.

IMO all this nonsense needs to stop (including regioning of older films) I know it's a business but it's also an art form, and art is for everyone, every country, every person, so -bleep- restrictions and regulations and such on art.

Yeah, and like I said I'm worried about what implications this may have on streaming services like Criterion or MUBI which have huge catalogues of foreign films. Will those rights to stream be subject to tariffs?

Also, I think, what this really is, is a play to push more box office for American made films. I've listened to several of Trump's comments, and I think he's (correctly) under the impression that the US Hollywood and film industry is dying and people aren't going to see films like they used to, nor is the quality of films what it used to be. We've had threads on this forum discussing such issues, and that's certainly true. In addition Trump is also (incorrectly) under the impression that the reason why the American film industry is suffering is because of international films. It is true that many Hollywood films have made concessions to China to escape the censors of their communist government and have compromised themselves because China is such a HUGE market for US films, where Trump is incorrect would be that the reason American film industry is suffering is not because Americans are opting to go watch international films instead. Tariffs might make sense under that world view if international films were bringing in huge box office in America that American films weren't, however this just isn't the case.

The yougins are too busy scrolling on TikTok and Instagram to go see films in the theater. The young adults are too busy XBOXin' to go see movies and the old folks are too busy spying on the neighbors and family members and snooping around posting everything wrong in the world on the local community facebook pages to bother to go to the movie theater. After all, if you're busy every night reading about the latest sale, the missing dog, and the canvassers that knocked on your door, and the suspicious car you caught driving down your street on the 65 year and older facebook gossip group, then there just plain ain't time to go see movies.

So, while I agree with Trump that the American film industry is complete garbage these days (Hell the only thing that makes money is Marvel nonsense or Minecrap), tariffs will do nothing to alleviate the real reason behind it, which no government intervention is going to solve.

Yeah, this makes me scared if they mess with my beloved Criterion Channel. Also regarding the rest of the no-politics rule, yeah we can hopefully discuss what's going on without getting into the ad-hominem or whatever attacks and just discuss the policy as it pertains to the rulings or executive actions and how it affects the film of film nerds. I know that my leanings tend to run opposite of a lot of people on this board, but Hell, I call balls and strikes as I see them, regardless of what "team" I'm on.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...-film-industry

You can't expect studio heads to make every reactionary, lazy, uninformed and culturally stupid decision. Why not let the executive branch of the government get in on that idiot action. I'm sure they've got loads of ideas.

gonna don the tinfoil hat for a sec here but could the intent here be censorship?

No. There isn’t anything to suggest the issue is censorship.

Honestly, at this point with the state of the film industry, I'd be OK with a type of a Hayes code. When was the last time we've had a Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, North by Northwest, Lawrence of Arabia, All About Eve, Sunset Blvd, and on and on and on...

We need a CGI, percent of films that can be Marvel junk, percent of films that are actually decent grown up-geared storytelling, and on and on.

There have been many MANY great films and in looking at my 2010s list, we've had some of the best films of all time pop up in the past decade or so, BUT these are mostly all indie stuff and they don't play at multiplexes.

But again... tariffs ARE NOT the answer to the crisis the American film industry is currently in.

And I get it too. I hate censorship in theory, but in practice... I gotta call strikes on this because the Hays Code and its enforcement spawned some of the greatest writing of all time and some of the best dialogue you'll ever see in an effort to dodge the censors.

“Marvel junk”,

Sure, we have some of the best directors in the industry working for Marvel, and the whole theater industry would have completely collapsed without Marvel movies to bail them out over the last 5 years, but why bother looking at the positive side…

This isn't about censorship it's about xenophobia.

This.

are these different things in this context?

I think so.