Experts say Trump's tariff plan could 'kill' US film industry

US President Donald Trump's proposed 100 percent tariff on films produced outside the US has sparked alarm across the entertainment industry, with experts warning the policy could devastate American cinema.

William Reinsch, a former official at the US Commerce Department, told Reuters the tariff proposal would "kill" the American movie industry. 

"We have a lot more to lose than to gain," said Reinsch, who is a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Rather than bringing production back to the US, the most likely outcome is a dramatic reduction in the number of films being made altogether, said Scott Roxborough, Europe bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter. 

"The most likely consequence is not that more productions will be done outside of America, or more productions would be done in America, but probably that just fewer productions will [be made]," Roxborough told Reuters.

Film critic Eric Deggans of NPR said that the tariff policy may invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries, putting American studios at a disadvantage in global markets.

"It may create a situation where the tariffs in America are causing more harm than good," he told BBC. He said other countries may respond by placing tariffs on American films, making it "harder for these films to make profits overseas."

A report from the US Motion Picture Association underscored the stakes: US is a net exporter of film and television content. The industry generated $230 billion in total sales in 2023 and supported more than 2.3 million jobs. Experts fear that protectionist measures like Trump's proposed tariffs would undercut that success.

Anthony Moretti, an associate professor at the Robert Morris University, argued the move could isolate the US culturally and economically. "Imposing tariffs or other barriers on foreign films will not benefit the US movie industry," Moretti wrote in an opinion article for CGTN. "Such choices risk turning the country into an isolated cultural (not to mention economic when other tariffs are considered) island."

The financial toll could be significant: Investment bank Citi warned that Netflix could see a 20 percent hit to its earnings per share and an annual increase of $3 billion in costs under a worst-case scenario, TheWrap reported.