Hollywood studios and unions representing film employees have joined forces to induce U.S. President Donald Trump to offer tax breaks to U.S.-made movies.
The joint letter, which was additionally signed by Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone — two of Trump’s “ambassadors” to Hollywood — comes days after the Republican president stated he needed to impose 100% tariffs on international movies in a bid to assist the home trade.
The letter thanks Trump “for the support you have shown our industry,” and for drawing consideration to manufacturing fleeing abroad.
But it makes no point out of Trump’s tariff plan, a proposal that was met with bafflement throughout the trade, with observers saying they’d no thought how such a tax may work.
“Currently, more than 80 countries offer production tax incentives and as a result, numerous productions that could have been shot in America have instead located elsewhere,” says the letter.
“Returning more production to the United States will require a national approach and broad-based policy solutions, including… longer term initiatives such as implementing a federal film and television tax incentive.”
The thought of a federal tax credit score scheme was additionally recommended final week by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The letter, from the Motion Picture Association — an umbrella grouping for main studios and streamers — and unions representing administrators, actors and writers, suggests numerous tax deductions that will make movie-making cheaper.
“A domestic production incentive would make the U.S. market more competitive and able to retain and return high-paying jobs tied to film and television productions -– and the use of this deduction has historically promoted significant economic and job growth,” it says.
America’s film trade has step by step moved away from its conventional dwelling in and round Hollywood as manufacturing has shifted to cheaper places.
The variety of capturing days in Los Angeles reached an all-time low final 12 months — decrease even than in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when filming shut down utterly.
Fewer than one in 5 movie or TV sequence broadcast within the United States was produced in California, in keeping with FilmLA, a company that tracks the film trade.
The lack of that manufacturing has a big financial influence.
According to the letter to Trump, every day a movie shoots on location it spends greater than $670,000, and employs almost 1,500 individuals.
On May 4, Trump declared on social media that “the Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.”
He stated he had instructed the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to levy a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
© 2025 AFP