How Trump’s 100% Movie Tax Could Kill Your Favorite Shows… And Send Streaming Stocks into Freefall

It’s been, what… three whole days since Trump threatened a tariff? Felt like a record. But don’t worry, he’s back on schedule. And this time, he’s coming for... movies.

Yesterday, on Truth Social (of course), Trump announced a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the US. I have to admit, I’ve been analyzing these tariff moves and researching stocks for quite a while… and I didn’t even think about streaming stocks being hit by tariffs. But in 2025, anything is possible. I guess in Trump’s mind, letting American studios film in the U.K. or Canada is now a national security threat. And if your mind immediately went to Netflix, Disney, and the rest of the streaming names (ding ding ding) you’re on the money.

These companies have been quietly (okay, not that quietly) outsourcing productions all over the globe for years. And can you blame them? L.A. is expensive, Vancouver has better tax breaks, and Budapest looks suspiciously like 19th-century Paris if you squint hard enough.

In fact, none of this year’s 10 Best Picture Oscar contenders were filmed in L.A. Studios have built a global content supply chain… filming in Europe, doing post-production in Canada, and sending VFX work to Southeast Asia, all to save a buck. But now Trump wants to spike the cost of foreign-made productions with a “double your money” tariff. 

Markets are paying attention, even if they aren’t panicking yet. Netflix dropped 2%. Disney slipped 1%. Warner Bros. fell nearly 3%. Comcast dipped too. And while no one’s screaming “disaster” yet, analysts like Barton Crockett (who sadly is not Davey’s descendant) are sounding alarms. He says it plainly: this move could seriously raise costs and shrink how much content gets made. Fewer shows, fewer movies. Possibly more reruns of “Love Is Blind.” God help us. You thought this was just a “Buy American” campaign? Cute. The real danger is retaliation.

The U.S. film industry pulled in $22.6 billion in exports last year and held a $15.3 billion trade surplus. If countries like the U.K., Canada, or Australia decide to return the favor and stick their own tariffs on American films? Well... Netflix might want to start airing home movies from Nebraska. Oh, and China’s already pulling back… reducing the number of U.S. films allowed in theaters and encouraging audiences to cool it with the Marvel marathons.

So what happens now? That’s the $22 billion cliffhanger… and just like a bad Netflix pilot, there’s no clarity, no credits, and definitely no fine print. As usual, Trump didn’t exactly include a “terms and conditions apply” PDF in his post. We don’t know if this applies to films made by U.S. companies overseas. Or how it’ll affect streaming platforms vs theatrical releases. Or even how the tariff will be calculated (Box office? Production cost?).

Nobody knows. Not investors. Not studios. Not even Trump's interns who probably found out about it the same way we did… scrolling in bed while ironically watching Netflix. The only thing that’s clear is a global entertainment machine just got a big kick to the balls.

And with over 26% less production spending in the U.S. last year, the idea that studios will suddenly start filming every car chase and love scene in California again is… let’s say, wishful thinking.

Hollywood’s been accused of a lot of things (being out of touch, too woke, too broke, too many sequels) but “destroying national security by filming Deadpool in London” is a new one.

As Trump put it: “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” Sure. But if this escalates too much, we might just end up with fewer movies everywhere... and having to rewatch The Office and Modern Family over and over.

PS: It’s a mess out there.

One day the market’s ripping, the next day it’s Black Monday all over again. Recent earning’s reports have been a total coin flip. One stock beats and explodes 30%… the next misses by a penny and gets sent to the Shadow Realm. And through it all, everyone’s begging for Jerome Powell to finally cave and cut rates.

But underneath all the panic headlines (“Inflation too sticky!” “Recession imminent!” “Tariffs round 4 incoming!”) something wild is happening…

We’re seeing violent price action. Especially in the small-cap space, where low floats and high anxiety are creating the perfect recipe for 100%+ pops before lunchtime. Some of these names are moving 200%+ in under 24 hours… and to our knowledge, NO ONE else is covering them.

Except us.

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Stock.News has positions in Netflix and Disney.