May 9, 2025  7:13 AM 

The entertainment industry reacted with alarm and bafflement on Monday after President 

Donald Trump  said he would impose a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the U.S.,

but issued few details on just how such a levy would work.

Veteran studio executives who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity said the announcement

on Sunday left unanswered the timing of the proposed levy and how it would be enforced for an

industry whose biggest-budget films are often produced across several continents.

Trump's pronouncement followed his meeting at Mar-a-Lago with his Hollywood ambassador, actor

Jon Voight, special advisor Steven Paul and media executive Scott Karol. The group mulled a range of

ideas to revive domestic film and TV production, including federal tax incentives, tax code changes and

imposing tariffs "in certain limited circumstances," the group said in a statement.

Slapping levies on an industry like film would mark a major extension of tariffs as a policy tool into

services, for which the U.S. runs a sizable trade surplus. And like the auto, pharmaceutical and chip

industries before it, Trump's declaration threatens to put another business in a tariff-induced state of

limbo.