Hollywood reeling from surprising Trump announcement

05 May 2025, 20:00 · The Fresno Bee

Have you ever watched a movie set in New York City and thought, “Man, Manhattan looks a lot like Vancouver in this scene?” If so, congratulations - you’re paying more attention than 99% of the audience.

Also, you’re noticing one of the cost-saving measures studios take to make their films profitable.

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Shutting down 5th Avenue for a few days of filming isn’t in the budget for most productions, but a car chase scene on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver gives the audience the same thrill at a fraction of the cost.

For decades, foreign countries, especially Canada, have offered Hollywood Studios tax incentives to move their productions out of Southern California and New York.

The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit gives eligible productions a fully refundable 25% tax credit.

There are also provincial tax incentive programs in British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta that provide tax credits of up to 40%, all to make it cheaper to film north of the border.

Between 2023 and 2024, B.C. alone provided $909 million in film and television credits, according to the Vancouver Sun.

B.C. gets a lot in return for this investment. The film industry generated $2 billion in GDP for the province in 2023, despite a five-month industry strike that resulted in numerous production delays and cancellations.

As studio dynamics and economics have changed over the last three decades, the draw of saving some serious dough by shooting overseas has prompted Hollywood to move much of its productions out of town.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump drew parallels between his own fight against U.S. companies offshoring their labor and the trends in Tinseltown.

President Trump vows to make movies in America again.

Image source: Getty Images

Trump comes to Hollywood’s rescue

On Sunday night, a time when many Americans combat the Sunday scaries by sitting down to relax with a film or television show, Trump may have been doing the same when he sent out a surprising message on social media.

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” the President posted.

“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”

That last line of this statement is important because, despite some executive branch confusion about the issue, the U.S. Constitution limits presidential powers, but those powers become broader if there is a national security threat.

“Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Trump said.

The Department of Commerce did not immediately return a request for comment from TheStreet, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik responded to the President on Twitter.

Trump may be solving a Hollywood problem that doesn’t exist

Just because Hollywood is losing productions doesn’t mean those dollars are leaving the country.

Breaking Bad, a hit television show that ran for five seasons between 2008 and 2013, was famously supposed to be set in Riverside, California, when its creator, Vince Gilligan, first envisioned it.

But the show is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, because it is cheaper to film there.

Other states in the country have been stealing California’s business.

Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana have been some of the more aggressive states in attracting film and television production.

Weeks ago, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would more than double the money the state spends to bring Hollywood productions to the state. Bipartisan support directed the state comptroller to deposit $500 million into the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund every two years until 2035.

The state House of Representatives is now considering that bill.

And California itself is also making moves to keep Hollywood in Southern California.

Last October, California Governor Gavin Newsom more than doubled the state’s film tax credit program to $750 million from $330 million.

It seems that the industry is using free trade principles instead of presidential fiat to solve its own problems, as industries in a capitalist society tend to do.

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This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM.