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Nobody faults President Trump’s ambitions to make Hollywood great again, but investors aren’t convinced tariffs will make it happen. 

Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount, and Cinemark all tumbled Monday after Trump proposed a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas. 

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

As with past trade policy swings, the president framed this as a national security imperative, pointing to foreign film subsidies. Still, the argument here is less obvious than the one for steel or chips. 

Trump added Monday that he’s not looking to hurt the industry. He said he plans to meet with film industry executives because there are “some advantages I guess” to overseas production. 

Trump’s abrupt salvo not only introduced new volatility, but a fresh layer of uncertainty over where content ends and trade begins.

Netflix remains up more than 27% year-to-date, but the case for it being a defensive stock in the tariff era just met its plot twist.

Some analysts forecast that the proposed tariff could cost the industry billions a year, depending on the fine print. 

Details, naturally, remain spare at this point. Yet the ambiguity was enough to spark a sell-off among investors who are already skittish from China’s recent retaliatory announcement that it would minimize imports of US films. 

Unlike other trade policies focused on physical goods crossing physical borders, targeting films opens the door to murkier digital and intellectual territory. 

What’s more, beyond balance sheets at production studios, Hollywood tariffs risk curtailing one of America’s most competitive exports: classic Americana, Western culture.

If we use the president’s Art of the Deal as reference, it’s unlikely for his initial proposal to be final. 

While that’s good news for media stock shareholders, they remain at the mercy of an unscripted economic chapter. 

Market snapshot

Elsewhere

📉 Palantir beat earnings estimates for the first quarter. Despite raising its full-year guidance, the stock dropped after hours. So far in 2025, Palantir has defied the broader trend in tech stocks and gained roughly 60% year-to-date. (CNBC)

🚘️ Ford’s first-quarter profit dropped 64%. The company withdrew its profit forecast for the year, pointing to macro uncertainty tied to tariffs. Production halts and a money-losing EV business has dragged on the automaker. (WSJ)

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Rapid-fire

• Berkshire Hathaway stock under Warren Buffett has returned 5,502,284% in 60 years (CNBC)

• Berkshire Hathaway stock closed lower on Monday after Buffett announced he would step back as CEO but stay on as chairman (Barron’s)

• Investors are likely to see a growing array of financial products containing private credit heading their way this year (Reuters)

• ChatGPT creator OpenAI abandoned its planned for-profit conversion (WSJ)

• Inside the private parties, side events and mini conferences of Omaha (Opening Bell Daily)

• Beijing has stopped publishing hundreds of data points, shrouding the health of its economy (WSJ)

• There was only one book sold at Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting this year (Blog)

Last thing

About me

📰 I’m Phil Rosen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Opening Bell Daily. I’ve published books, lived on three continents, and won awards for my journalism, which has appeared in Business Insider, Fortune, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine.

I write our flagship newsletter to prepare you for each trading day, unpacking markets, economic data and Wall Street with analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Feedback? Reply to this email, ping me on X @philrosenn, or write me directly at [email protected].