Shortly after US President Donald Trump declared a 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur raised concerns over the policy’s potential damage to American cinema. Kapur, internationally acclaimed for his Oscar-winning films on Queen Elizabeth I, took to Twitter (now called X) to express his apprehensions. He argued that this decision could ironically drive Hollywood productions away from American soil rather than protect them.
“Over 75% of box office of Hollywood films come from outside the US. And significant part of the budget of those films are spent outside the US,” Kapur pointed out, highlighting the global dependency of the American film industry.
Elaborating further, he warned, “President Trump’s imposition of 100% tariff on all films imported into the US may encourage Hollywood to move outside the US! Quite the opposite of what he intended.”
President Trump’s announcement came on Sunday, citing the decline of the American film industry as justification for the tariff. He claimed that foreign incentives were accelerating the sector’s decline, saying it was dying a “very fast death” because of efforts by other countries to attract filmmakers.
