“Lights, camera… tariff?” – that’s the question a scrambling movie industry has been asking this week after an unexpected intervention from US President Donald Trump.
Writing on his Truth Social platform last Sunday, Trump announced plans to hit movies made in foreign countries with 100% tariffs, as he attempts to stop Hollywood dying “a very fast death”.
His threat comes as studios increasingly shift productions abroad to places such as the UK.
The White House has since clarified that “no final decision” has been made and that they’re “exploring all options” for revitalising the US film industry.
But Trump’s suggestion alone has sent shockwaves through the industry – from Hollywood to Hertfordshire – so what might all of this mean in practice?
In 2014, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shot by Disney at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and Hollywood has kept growing closer to the UK since.
Last year alone, the British Film Institute says 65% of UK production spend came from the five major US film studios and three US streaming giants – Netflix, Apple and Amazon. This amounted to £1.37bn ($1.71bn), a near 50% jump on 2023.
In Hollywood, by contrast, film and television production in Los Angeles has dropped by nearly 40% over the past decade.
The reason? Well largely,it’s cheaper to make films in the UK. That’s thanks to generous tax incentives such as the Film Tax Relief, which offers a 25% tax rebate – as well as lower labour costs and centralised national funding for film.
As British actor Brian Cox told Times Radio on Tuesday: “The reality is films go where they can afford.”
For Universal’s blockbuster Jurassic World: Dominion, these incentives delivered a reported £89.1m ($111.38m) in savings.
In the US, tax incentives operate on a state level – and Hollywood has relatively poor tax breaks – not only compared with the UK, which can offer 10% more, but other states such as New York and Georgia, too.
Fixing that is no easy task. Trump has appointed Golden Globe Award-winning actor Jon Voight, 86, as a special ambassador to Hollywood, and met with him a day before dropping his light-on-detail proposal.
But it’s not exactly clear how tariffs would solve the internal tax problem in the US. A possible solution, raised by Voight, is a federal tax incentive to mirror the UK.
The Wrap’s film reporter Jeremy Fuster tells the BBC it is “unlikely”, in the current highly-charged climate, that Republicans would “support a federal tax incentive that can easily be portrayed as a handout to ‘woke Hollywood'”.
And what would the impact be on moviegoers if the levy goes ahead?
Fuster says costs, like any other tariffed good, would be passed onto audiences through ticket prices, premium on-demand increases or subscription rates.
How exactly this would take form is “something nobody knows”.
It’s not all about the money, because while a boost to US production could benefit parts of the industry, some projects will still need to shoot abroad. “Amazon isn’t going to make the next James Bond entirely in America,” Fuster notes.
Culture minister Sir Chris Bryant has said the UK government is in “active discussions with the top of the US administration” on the “very fluid” situation.
With all this in mind, do you know which films have been made in the UK in recent years? BBC News has looked at some below – and they might be closer to home than you think.
Barbie and Oz in Hertfordshire
Warner Bros Leavesden studio in Hertfordshire, best known for producing the Harry Potter films, has been used as the set for numerous Hollywood blockbusters including Barbie, Mickey 17, Venom: The Last Dance and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
The nearby Sky Studios Elstree in Borehamwood was turned into the magical world of Oz in 2023 as it welcomed its first production, Wicked.
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Thrillers in Glasgow
Beyond Hertfordshire, cities such as Glasgow have long been used as a filming hub for Hollywood movies.
The opening scene of Brad Pitt’s zombie thriller, World War Z, may look like Philadelphia, but the film was actually shot in George Square in the Scottish city.
In November, the city was transformed into a dystopian New York as Glen Powell was spotted filming for forthcoming thriller The Running Man.
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Indiana Jones spans Glasgow and northern England
It’s not just dystopian films that are shot in Glasgow – in 2021, star-spangled banners, bunting and vintage shop fronts decorated the streets of Glasgow city centre for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The city was used for a parade scene which appears to capture 1960s New York as Apollo astronauts return home.
The latest Indiana Jones movie was also shot in Northern England with Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland being used in the opening scenes.
The castle doubled up for 1944 war-torn Nazi Germany.
Other scenes were shot along the North York Moors railway line in Grosmont, and the Leaderfoot Viaduct, over the River Tweed, near Melrose, in the Scottish Borders.
The Batman in Liverpool
In 2022, The Batman used Glasgow Cathedral, the Necropolis and the Bridge of Sighs to create Gotham City, which is based on New York.
Speaking to the BBC in 2022 about the choice in filming location, director Matt Reeves said it was important to film in a location where there was “beautiful Gothic architecture”.
“I wanted this to feel like a Gothic American city, but one that you’d never been to,” he said. “So we went to Glasgow and honestly it was so beautiful.”
The film’s lead actor, Robert Pattinson, said: “It looks great as Gotham, who would’ve thought of all the cities in the world, Glasgow as Gotham?”
Central Saint Martins art school in London was also used as a building in Gotham City, as was some parts of Liverpool.
Keen-eyed fans will spot that Gotham City Police Department is actually the Liver Building’s clock tower, although the giant Liver Bird was airbrushed out.
Spider-Man and Captain America in Manchester
Spider-Man spin-off Morbius was filmed in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and in 2010, the city became 1940s Brooklyn for Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans.
Liverpool’s early 20th Century buildings has also made it a popular stand-in for New York’s older skyscrapers. Liverpool was transformed into 1920s New York for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which sees Eddie Redmayne search the city for his escaped magical beasts.
Snow White in Wales
Disney’s recent live-action Snow White movie was almost entirely filmed in the UK, with Pinewood Studios used for many indoor scenes and sets.
A quarry in the Lake District, a beach in Pembrokshire, Wales and a nature reserve in Burnham were all also used as shooting locations.
As well as Snow White, Netflix’s new thriller Havoc, starring Tom Hardy and set in an unnamed US city, was filmed in Wales.
The film’s Welsh director Gareth Evans, said it was “challenging” to recreate a US city in south Wales, but he wanted to bring more work to the area.
Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall doubled up as the exterior of a fictional city police station while Cardiff’s Bute Street was turned into a US boulevard with 30cm (12in) of fake snow for one of Havoc’s night-time scenes.
Other blockbusters filmed in UK
Other recent Hollywood blockbusters that have seen the majority of their filming – known as principal photography – in the UK, include:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Back in Action (2025)
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Credit: BBC