Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos doesn’t think tariffs are the right way to boost US movie and TV production — and he thinks he’s gotten through to President Donald Trump on the issue.
“He has brought up tariffs for the movie and television industry many times, and I’ve hopefully talked to him the way out of them,” Sarandos said in a new interview with POLITICO, which, alongside Business Insider, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
Trump has been keen on using tariffs to encourage more filming in the US. In May, he announced on Truth Social a plan to impose a 100% tariff on films produced outside the US. He hasn’t implemented it so far.
Trump’s plan to add tariffs on foreign movies stemmed from a desire to slow production declines in Hollywood and other areas of the US that “are being devastated” by filming incentive programs abroad, he wrote in his May announcement on Truth Social.
Los Angeles production work has been dropping off for years, and the city’s media professionals are feeling the pain. Overseas filming hubs like London have been courting production work by offering big cost-saving incentives.
Sarandos said he’d prefer the US use similar tax incentives to bring filming back home.
“Healthy incentive programs attract a lot of production, and you’ve seen a lot of them move from California to Georgia to New Jersey,” Sarandos told POLITICO. “Having the incentives versus tariffs is much better.”
The tariff structure for a movie, which isn’t a physical good, isn’t entirely clear. A White House spokesman said in a statement shortly after Trump’s announcement that “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs” had been made and that the administration was “exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.”
A fee on foreign productions could become very expensive for Netflix, which has released a slate of international films and TV shows over the years, including “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Squid Game,” and “Adolescence.”
Netflix’s global reach and its ability to turn a South Korean or German drama into a global hit have been key differentiators for the company, which is expected to spend as much as $20 billion on content this year.
