China will “moderately reduce” the number of U.S. films that play in the country in response to Donald Trump’s 125% tariffs on all goods from China, the China Film Administration announced on Thursday.
“The wrong action of the U.S. government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability towards American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement. “We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”
It was not immediately clear which films would be affected, but Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” — opening in May — had previously been given the go-ahead to play in China and 20th Century Studios’ spy film “The Amateur” is due to be released in the country tomorrow.
While Hollywood scaled back its reliance on China for box office in recent years as fewer films played there and China began leaning more heavily on its own films, 2025 brings two movies that are destined to do gangbusters business in the country: November’s “Zootopia 2” and December’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” It’s unclear whether this ban would even extend that long, but certainly Disney hopes not.
There were 42 US films approved to play in China in 2024. 52 were approved in 2019, and 26 were approved in 2021. China has cut back in the past and was recently approving more films as the local box office struggled last year, but with “Ne Zha 2” providing a lot of momentum, they can afford to approve fewer films with built-in hype.
On Wednesday, Trump announced he was pausing tariffs for 75 unidentified countries he said were negotiating with the United States, but at the same time increased tariffs on China to 125%.
“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” he said. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”
