U.S. Media Stocks Rattled by Latest Tariff Threats

A social media post by U.S. President Donald Trump over a potential 100 percent tariff on all feature films made overseas rattled U.S. media stocks today.

On Truth Social this weekend, President Trump said he was ordering the Department of Commerce to impose a 100 percent tariff on films produced globally coming into the U.S. No further details have been released on how the tariffs would be implemented. The White House has said that no final determination has been made regarding the movie tariff.

International bodies with incentives that have proven popular with American filmmakers have weighed in. Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of CMPA in Canada, said, “While specific details are far from clear at this point, the proposed actions outlined in US President Donald Trump’s announcement will cause significant disruption and economic hardship to the media production sectors on both sides of the Canada-US border.”

Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission, said, “While this announcement is clearly concerning, we need to understand the detail surrounding the proposed tariffs. We will be meeting with Government and our industry policy group in the coming days to discuss further. The U.K. and U.S. have long enjoyed a strong, shared history of filmmaking, recently celebrating 100 years of creative collaboration and production. We look forward to continuing that for years to come, to our mutual benefit.”