‘We Need to Bring Tom Cruise Home to Make Movies Here’: U.S. Film Incentive Takes Center Stage at AFM

Tom Cruise may not have much of a presence at the American Film Market, more accustomed to selling movies with considerably lower budgets than those the star is used to. But on the opening day of the 2026 edition his name was casually dropped as part of a major pitch for the much-discussed federal tax incentive. The initiative, which many in the industry hope will help turn around a major slump in terms of U.S.-shot productions, took center stage at the AFM on day one, which launched with uncharacteristic levels of optimism, at least for Hollywood (and assuming the bill is approved). “Star salaries is a key issue, because what we’re looking to do is bring back the biggest movies with the biggest amount of jobs attached to them,” said the MPA’s SVP of federal government affairs Josh Rogin. “So when Tom Cruise does a movie in France, all those jobs become French jobs. All the taxes he pays, he pays it to the French government. Our current system is actually supporting runaway productions in this way. We need to bring Tom Cruise home to make movies here!” Rogin was speaking on the first panel of the AFM alongside Stephen Paul, chair and CEO of SP Media Group, and SP Media Group president Scott Karol, who both met with President Donald Trump at the White House earlier this year — alongside “special ambassador” to Hollywood Jon Voight — to discuss the proposed incentive. While the exact details of the Oval Office meeting were kept under wraps, Paul did discuss the letter read to Trump by Voight that they had all worked on. “It explained everything about the industry, explaining about how we’ve not only lost movies from around the world, but we’re losing the effect of America on the rest of the world,” he said. “Because when we don’t make films here in America, people aren’t seeing that around the world. We’re faking it. We’re saying, ‘Oh, this is America,’ but filming it in England or filming in New Zealand. People all around the world have wanted to come to America because of the films that they have seen and television that have filmed in America.” As has been previously reported, Paul told Trump about a film he was developing about another U.S. president, RIchard Nixon. “I said, Mr. President, I’m ashamed about what I’m about to tell you, but I’m about to make a film about a president of the United States that I’m going to film in England because I can’t afford to film it here.” According to Paul, when he asked Trump if he thought that “was right,” he said “No,” prompting Karol to show him all the information about how the federal tax credit would help. The efforts seemingly worked, with Trump later posting on Truth Social that “Congress should approve, immediately, a Federal Production Incentive to create Entertainment Jobs in America.” But there’s now renewed urgency to get the bill passed — with the speakers pointing towards an end-of-year deadline. In terms of the logistics of film development, Karol said it was important for producers so they could give a Jan. 1 2027 start-of-production date — enabling their films to qualify. But he added that there were fresh concerns following the U.S. midterms. “Because who the hell knows what’s going to happen next year when Democrats come in and we hit the House and Senate and Trump’s upset because he’s a lame duck president — we don’t want that,” he said. In terms of the impact of the incentive, Rogin laid it out starkly in terms that AFM’s array of international visitors would understand. “A federal incentive would change the entire nature of our domestic film and TV industry. Right now, we are about 39% of the market we produce in America for this audience. We used to be at 60% just a few years ago,” he said. “Currently, America is in last place in federal incentives. We’re dead last. We have none. So there are dozens and dozens of countries that have created competitive tax requirements that draw our production overseas. We don’t need to take the best incentive, we just need to be competitive.”