Hollywood wanted Trump to bring movie-making back to the U.S.-but not like this

The Majority of Big Budget Hollywood Movies Are Now Shot Overseas to Take Advantage of Tax Breaks

- Ben Fritz, Brian Schwartz & Erich Schwartzel

Hollywood has been pleading with politicians for years to help stem the exodus of film and TV production to other countries. This weekend actor Jon Voight met with President Trump to make the case. The president's call for 100% tariffs on imported movies—which he issued in a social-media post Sunday—isn't what Hollywood had in mind.

Entertainment-industry executives expressed confusion over how a levy could be applied to intellectual property with no specific monetary value. They said they feared retaliatory tariffs could damage their business overseas, where big-budget movies often earn most of their box-office receipts. Shares in Disney, Netflix and other media companies and movie-theater chains fell Monday.

More moves out of Washington could be coming. Voight said in an interview Monday that the tariff announcement was "the beginning, perhaps, of changes that will be effective" and indicated there might be more to Trump's plan.

"There's a little bit for us to wait on," he said. Trump met last weekend at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, with Voight, his manager Steven Paul and Paul's business partner Scott Karol. The president later read up further on the issue, people familiar with the matter said.

Many in Hollywood would like to see the federal government offer tax incentives that make the U.S. more competitive with rival countries.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union, which represents most behind-the-scenes craftspeople in Hollywood, asked the Trump administration Monday to implement a federal movie-production tax-incentive program.