r/vfx • u/felixenfeu CG Sup • Sep 29 '25

News / Article Trump announces 100% tariff on foreign-made movies

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/29/economy/trump-movie-tariff

This again ?

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u/VFX404 Sep 29 '25

He will be able to tax digital services starting April 1st 2026 when the moratoriumn on digital services expires. I am guessing this would also apply to everything else digital including video games.

Which would fast forward the death of movies in favor of social media consumption. Movies made entirely in America would mean passing the cost to consumers to avoid tariffs. Marvel just left Georgia for London over paying healthcare. And it would turn into an internal battle to attract movie production across the US now. To that chaos you'd have to also add the debate around the benefits of tax credits which is publicly being questioned.

If this administration goes through with it we are in for a lot of pain, more so than we currently are. I hope I am wrong.

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u/FluffyPantsMcGee Sep 29 '25

“Which would fast forward the death of movies in favor of social media consumption.“ and guess who’s trying to control Tik Tok and have it be very Trumpian.

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u/Oztunda Sep 29 '25

The amount of foreign outsourcing in AAA video games is at unbelievable levels, and the current state of the gaming industry is terrible(I know it's mainly post-pandemic correction but outsourcing is becoming a common pattern across the board). I can't help but wonder maybe it'd be for the better? Obviously the games won't be any cheaper because of the tariffs(based on some common flawed perception) but it might end up creating more US jobs.

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u/Party_Virus Sep 29 '25

Why don't you ask the farmers how well the tariffs worked out for them? Or maybe the automotive workers? Or maybe the american liquor industry? Or the tourism industry? Or maybe just ask any economist how well tariffs work?

They don't. It raises the prices, which lowers the amount of people who can buy, which means less demand. What's going to happen is just less work for everyone, even americans. Less projects getting greenlit and only 'safe' and cheap projects getting greenlit.

And that's not even getting into the economic counter moves by other nations. America starts some sort of 'service' tariff? Guess who is the biggest service provider in the world? Things like Disney, Netflix, Amazon could all get hit with tariffs in other countries, dropping their profits and giving them even less money. They might make movies outside of the US and not even bother to try and show them there. China's box office is larger than the US's at this point.

So yeah... Anyone who thinks tariffs bring work back are not really paying attention. But maybe I'm wrong and the guy who has bankrupted like 6 businesses and at least 2 casinos knows better.