Tom Cruise may not have much of a presence in the American film market, more accustomed to selling films with considerably lower budgets than the star is accustomed to. But on the opening day of the 2026 edition, his name was accidentally dropped as part of a major pitch for the much-discussed federal tax incentive.
The initiative, which many in the industry hope will help reverse a major crisis in terms of productions filming in the United States, took center stage at the AFM from day one, which was launched with an unusual level of optimism, at least for Hollywood (and assuming the bill is approved).
“Star salaries are a key issue, because what we’re looking to do is bring back the biggest films with the greatest number of jobs attached to them,” said Josh Rogin, MPA’s senior vice president of federal government affairs. “So when Tom Cruise makes a film in France, all those jobs become French jobs. All the taxes he pays, he pays to the French government. Our current system supports rampant productions in this way. We need to bring Tom Cruise home to make films here!”
Rogin was speaking on the first AFM panel alongside SP Media Group Chairman and CEO Stephen Paul and SP Media Group Chairman 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 discussed the letter Voight read to Trump that they had all been working on.
“It explains everything about the industry, explaining how we’ve not only lost films from around the world, but how we’re losing America’s effect on the rest of the world,” he said. “Because when we don’t make movies here in America, people don’t see that around the world. We pretend. We say, ‘Oh, that’s America,’ but we shoot it in England or New Zealand. People from all over the world have wanted to come to America because of the movies they’ve seen and the television that’s been made in America.”
As was previously reported, Paul spoke to Trump about a film he was developing about another US president, Richard Nixon. “I said, Mr. President, I’m ashamed of what I’m about to tell you, but I’m about to make a movie 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 “it was fair,” he replied “No,” which prompted Karol to show him all the information about how the federal tax credit would help him.
The efforts apparently worked, with Trump later posting on Truth Social that “Congress should immediately approve a federal production incentive to create entertainment jobs in America.”
But there is now increasing urgency to pass the bill — with speakers pointing to an end-of-year deadline. In terms of the logistics of developing the film, Karol said it was important for producers to be able to give a production start date of January 1, 2027, which would allow their films to qualify. But he added there were new concerns following the US midterm elections.
“Because who knows what’s going to happen next year when the Democrats come in and we beat the House and the Senate and Trump is upset because he’s a lame-duck president — we don’t want that,” he said.
Regarding the impact of the incentive, Rogin explained it in clear and understandable terms for all international visitors to the AFM.
“A federal incentive would change the entire nature of our domestic film and television industry. Right now we make up about 39 percent of the market that we produce in America for that audience. We made up 60 percent just a few years ago,” he said. “Right now, America is in last place in federal incentives. We’re dead last. We don’t have any. So there are dozens and dozens of countries that have created competitive tax requirements that attract our production overseas. We don’t need to take the best incentives, we just need to be competitive.”
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