In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be talking about Trump’s tariffs on all non-American films.
Now I personally am a centrist I think that both sides have some good ideas and some bad ideas, I am not a TDS person and think some of his policy decisions have been good. However, this is not one of them. As you know lots of other countries are offering tax breaks to film there or other financial bonuses this had lead to a lot of production happening now outside of the US. So Trump’s big idea is rather than offer his own tax breaks to win back American studios he will instead tariff films coming into the US. This like his Liberation Day tariffs and his China tariffs will backfire and he’ll end up walking them back when they hurt the American market, but before he does that lets look at all the reasons it is a terrible idea.
Firstly there are some shooting locations that you just couldn’t replicate in America, think about the Lord of the Rings trilogy for example. Moreover, there are some animation houses and VFX teams are not based in the US and to use them would incur tariffs, so what is a studio to do hire American animators, train up a new generation and found new animation houses this would take far too long and cost far too much money, much more than you would be losing on the tariffs. Moreover, the way the tariffs would likely manifest would be higher budgets for films meaning higher ticket prices and more importance placed on films making lots of money which in this current box office is a perilous move.
Secondly, the move would be viewed as broadly stupid as it would drive many countries away from America, in addition to the broader tariffs, it would also cost American studios and talent work as other nations would likely stop hiring Americans and focus on their national cinema. Additionally, the framing of ‘foreign propaganda’ makes this seem like an old man off his meds ranting. You could see it broadly referring to any films made that are critical of him and wouldn’t just apply to those made out of the US. Moreover, framing it as a national emergency to try and gain sweeping powers seems hysterical and like a move that the courts would fix in a minute. Personally, I don’t think this will ever actually come into effect as the CEO of Warner Brothers and the former CEO of Amazon are good friends with Trump and so will quash this. Warner Brothers Discovery has spent hundreds of millions building sound stages in the UK and would let that suddenly be in danger.
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly for all is that you have to consider retaliatory tariffs, so a lot of countries will make moves to protect their film industries and the people working in them in the wake of this, and the likely call is to hit back with tariffs of their own. This would mean that some American films would be badly effected at the global box office and would lose money and some films may not even see a release overseas. Moreover there could be efforts to ban American film in other countries cinemas or even boycotts by consumers, all of which would end up hurting Hollywood and backfiring on Trump spectacularly, just like his other tariffs.
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