Netflix, media stocks fall as Trump targets foreign films with 100% tariff

Investing.com -- Media and entertainment stocks slid premarket on Monday after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States, escalating his administration’s broader trade agenda into the film industry.

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

“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.”

Calling the situation a “National Security threat” and accusing foreign productions of serving as “messaging and propaganda,” Trump said he had authorized the Department of Commerce and the U.S. 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!” he added.

The announcement saw media and entertainment stocks decline premarket. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) has dropped 4.55%, Lions Gate Entertainment fell 8.5%, Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) slid 2.6%, Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) dropped 1.7%, Imax declined 2%, and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) edged down 0.8%.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded to Trump’s Truth Social post via X, saying, “We’re on it.” 

The scope of the proposed tariffs remains unclear, including whether they would apply to movies on streaming platforms or how they would be calculated.