Amid a precipitous drop in domestic film and television production in recent years, Hollywood has coalesced around support for a federal tax credit. It’ll almost always be cheaper to shoot in other countries, but the thinking is that government support could make it palatable to shoot more big-budget projects in the United States.
The idea of a nationwide tax incentive appeared like a longshot until President Trump pushed for one on Monday to juice the filming of movies and television shows in the country.
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The soon-to-be legislation even has a name: “The Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act,” which Trump said has “great bipartisan response and support in Congress.”
“We will bring this once great industry BACK TO AMERICA,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
The momentum to introduce the bipartisan bill appears to be real, with work to craft it already underway. It’ll be framed as a jobs initiative to attract support from Republicans, whose constituents are also feeling the impacts of runaway production.
The support follows Trump convening with Hollywood “special ambassador” Jon Voight and his business associates Steven Paul and Scott Karol at the White House on Monday. During the meeting, they told Trump that the shooting of movies and television shows in the United States had reached a critical point, with productions increasingly turning to countries that offer lucrative tax incentives — like Britain, Canada and Australia — for filming.
At one point, Paul pointed to an upcoming film he’s producing about Richard Nixon’s early years, which he said would need to shoot in a foreign country without a federal tax incentive.
“President Trump’s public support is a major step forward for American film and television production,” Paul said in a statement. “This is about rebuilding an industry that creates high-paying jobs across the country and ensuring that American stories are made by American workers here at home. We look forward to working with leaders in both parties to turn this momentum into legislation.”
Last year, Trump was presented with a series of options to boost domestic production, including infrastructure support and workforce development initiatives. He liked the idea of tariffs, though he ultimately never imposed them. Since then, Voight, Hollywood’s unions and the Motion Picture Association have been trying to steer him toward a federal tax credit.
Over 120 countries offer subsidies in what’s become a tit-for-tat race to host Hollywood. The United Kingdom has effectively become the global hub for tentpole productions, hosting Marvel Studios, which recently left its longtime home of Georgia. Other titles that have shot in the country include The Odyssey, Jurassic World Rebirth and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. In 2025, the U.K. economy saw roughly $7.8 billion in spending from international film and TV productions, according to a report from the British Film Commission, which noted that spending from U.S. productions rose almost 30 percent from the previous year.
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