China to restrict US film releases after Trump's tariff hike
Hours after Donald Trump imposed record 125% tariffs on Chinese products entering the US, China has announced it will further curb the number of US films allowed to screen in the country.
'The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience's favourability towards American films,' the China Film Administration said in a statement on Thursday. 'We will follow the market rules, respect the audience's choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.'
The move mirrors the potential countermeasure suggested by two influential Chinese bloggers earlier in the week, warning that 'China has plenty of tools for retaliation'.
Both Liu Hong, a senior editor at Xinhuanet, the website of the state-run Xinhua news agency, as well as Ren Yi, the grandson of former Guangdong party chief Ren Zhongyi, posted an identical proposal involving a heavy reduction on the import of US movies and further investigation of the intellectual property benefits of American companies operating in China.
China is the world's second largest film market after the US, although in recent years domestic offerings have outshone Hollywood imports. However, Thursday's measure comes as a significant blow to western studios, with Bloomberg reporting shares of Walt Disney Co, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros Discovery Inc all suffering an immediate decline.
Last week, the newly released A Minecraft Movie from Warner Bros topped the Chinese box office with ticket sales of $14.5m – around 10% of the global total. In 2024, the highest-grossing US film released in China was Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which took $132m in that territory, towards a global total of $572m.
The first US film was approved for Chinese release 31 years ago, with the number peaking at more than 60 in 2018. Since then it has declined, according to data from the Chinese ticketing service Maoyan Entertainment, thanks to escalating tensions and the increased popularity of homegrown movies.
Animated fantasy film Ne Zha 2, about a child battling monsters from Chinese mythology, was released in late January and has now taken $1.8bn in China, and $20m in the US.
Its huge domestic success made it the highest-grossing film both of 2025 so far and in a single box office territory, as well as the highest-grossing animated film in history and the first animated film in history to cross $2bn globally.
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However, many believed than the slate of upcoming Hollywood blockbusters would swell China's year-end coffers further, with Variety projecting a $7.6bn 2025 total, up significantly from 2024's $5.8bn.
Films including Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth and Avatar: Fire and Ash, would have been conceived and edited with a Chinese release in mind.
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