U.S. President Trump has called for an end to Hollywood producing movies overseas, and Hungary has a lot to lose.
“The movie industry in America is dying,” Trump told his audience on Truth Social, seeming to then indicate that “messaging and propaganda” were being used to kill it by foreign parties. “This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat,” he wrote, calling on movies to be “made in America again.”
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) May 5, 2025
Citing the incentives used overseas to attract studios away from the U.S., Trump says he will be instituting a 100 percent tariff on all movies made abroad.
Targeted by such a move must certainly be Hungary. Making movies in Hungary is big business, with studios and talent flocking here for the scenic period architecture, professionally equipped sets, full-scale production talent, and post-editing masters the country has to offer. Because of all of this, Budapest has long been known as a top spot to make movies.
Famous flicks made in “Hollywood on the Danube” include I Spy, World War Z, Dune, Munich, Evita, The Day of the Jackal, Alien: Romulus, The Martian, Red Sparrow, A Good Day to Die Hard, Rebel Moon, Love and Death, Blade Runner 2049… the list goes on.
Budapest’s biggest attraction has been no doubt the financial incentive offered by the Hungarian government, one of the highest tax breaks for film production in the world, and it has paid off.
Back in March 2024, Makronom wrote that in the decade up until 2022, the Hungarian film industry had increased tenfold, reaching HUF 400 billion ($1.12 billion). This was followed by a massive growth in revenues of 30 percent in 2023, with Government Commissioner for Film Csaba Káel announcing this past February that for 2024 alone, nearly $1 billion had been spent on productions.
However, this has been in large part due to foreign productions, primarily American. In September 2023, Budapest Business Journal highlighted that of the more than HUF 250 billion in production recorded in 2022, a whopping 90 percent of this came from the U.S. versus just HUF 85 billion in 2016.
Despite its growing importance as “the film capital of Central Europe,” the film industry makes up just a fraction of Hungarian GDP, a mere 0.6 percent as of the start of 2024 according to Makronom.
However, it contributes massively in other ways, namely via tourism, already mentioned, but also local businesses and jobs. As the second-largest European film production base after London, the country has created a thriving domestic structure for all things “Hollywood,” relying less and less on imports and fueling revenues for domestic suppliers, i.e., domestic business.
As of the start of 2024, making movies in Hungary employed approximately 20,000 people, most of whom are freelancers. There is still a continuous labor shortage in the sector, and 12-14 hour workdays lasting for several weeks are not uncommon, noted Makronom.
The dependence on foreign productions is real. Csaba Káel told Origo in January 2024 that “large-budget international films generate 3.2 times more gross income in the Hungarian economy than tax breaks.” Because of this, Káel said, Budapest needs international projects with the largest possible budget.
There is, of course, more to the Hungarian film economy than profits. It is also a source of national pride. Hungary is no newbie in the movie business, with a long history both in Hungary and in terms of Hungarians who helped create present-day Hollywood.
Adolph Zukor and William Fox founded two of Hollywood’s first studios, Paramount Pictures and Fox Film Corporation, respectively. Fox also started the chain of Fox West Coast Theatres.
One of Hungary’s extensive studio lots, Korda Filmpark, is named after Sir Alexander Korda, a Hungarian-born filmmaker and founder of Hungary’s Corvin Film, Europe’s third-largest studio in the early 20th-century era of silent films. Home to the largest film studio in Europe, with the most advanced technical equipment, numerous permanent sets, and nine studios, Korda Studios is known as the Hungarian Hollywood or Etyekwood (as it is located in Etyek, just outside of Budapest).
Many Hollywood celebrities have also been vocal about their own Hungarian heritage, such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, Adrian Brody, Goldie Hawn, Rachel Weisz, and Tony Curtis to name a few. Famed director Steven Spielberg has also claimed Hungarian ancestry, and of course, there is Hungarian-born producer Andy Vajna, of Total Recall, Rambo, and Terminator fame.
