On Sunday, 4 May 2025, America’s President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on all the No-US movies. This announcement shook the film industry globally, bringing fear, especially to India’s cinema industry. Indian filmmakers say this tariff is a threat to Indian Cinema and will bring disaster. Let’s understand this tariff in detail.
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Donald Trump: 100% Tariff on All Non-US Films.
As per reports, on Sunday, May 4, 2025, Donald Trump shared a post on Truth Social, where he announced a 100% tariff on all movies made outside America. He alleges that America’s cinema is DYING rapidly to extinction, and other countries are luring America’s filmmakers and studios.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States, “President Trump wrote in the post.
“Hollywood and many other areas within the U.S.A. are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!, “He adds further.
To save the country’s cinema industry, he authorized departments to begin the process of imposing a 100% tariff on foreign movies. “Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands, ” He wrote.
He wants country’s cinema boom, so he wrote, “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Donald Trump’s announcement has spread fear among filmmakers globally, but it’s still unclear it the tariffs would be applied on streaming services such as Netflix as well as those shown in theaters, and if they would be calculated based on production cost or box office revenue.
Details are unclear because the president has just authorized the departments to begin the process. Once it has been completed, details will be with us. Let’s see what happens.
100% Trump Tariff: A Disaster for Indian Cinema.
As Trump plans to impose 100% tariffs on foreign movies, India’s cinema will suffer most, especially Bollywood and Telugu blockbuster films, which have leveraged revenue from the US markets. In those blockbuster films, Bollywood’s Jawan, Pathan, Dunki, and Telugu film RRR.
NDTV calculates that under Trump’s proposed 100% tariff, if a US distributor purchases the rights to screen an Indian film for $1 million, they’d now need to pay an additional $1 million as tax, doubling their investment. In an industry where profit margins are already thin, this is not just a hurdle, it’s a wall.
Filmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri shares his views on LinkedIn, explaining it a major threat for Indian Cinema. He wrote, “ALERT: Trump’s 100% Movie Tariff Threatens Indian Cinema: Trump’s 100% tariff on movies is a disastrous move. If this absurdity prevails, India’s struggling film industry will collapse entirely, with no one to save it. Indian film leaders must wake up, unite, and fight this threat instead of chasing paparazzi and self-glorification.”
Shekhar Kapur exposes Trump’s new policy, and explains how it would destroy Hollywood industry rather than recovering: “Over 75% of box office of Hollywood films come from outside the US. And significant part of the budget of those films are spent outside the US President Trump’s imposition of 100% tarif on all films imported into the US may encourage Hollywood to move outside the US! Quite the opposite of what he intended.”
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