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Hollywood is shaken by Trump's tariff plan for the movie industry
Filmmakers and Hollywood financiers are baffled, to say the least, by President Trump’s announcement that he wants a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the United States.
In the Oval Office Monday, Trump said he would hold meetings with Hollywood executives before making a final decision.“We’re going to meet with the industry; I want to make sure they’re happy about it,” Trump said.On Monday a White House spokesperson, Kush Desai, said, “while no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.”The White House’s reference to “all options” may calm some nerves, since Hollywood lobbyists have been pushing for carrots (like a federal tax incentives for films) rather than sticks (like a tariff) for some time now.Shifting away from HollywoodMovie and television production, once centered in and around Hollywood, has gravitated to other U.S. states and increasingly to other countries owing to tax incentives and other financial calculations.A wide array of movies, from “low-budget indies to studio blockbusters,” are “currently being made in countries like the U.K., France, Germany, and Hungary,” the entertainment trade magazine Variety noted on Monday while conveying “shock and disbelief across the European film industry.”Trump made the idea sound simple when he spoke with reporters at the White House Sunday night.“Other nations have been stealing the movies, the moviemaking capabilities, from the United States,” he said, apparently referring to the growing number of movies that are produced in other countries like Canada.“We should have a tariff on movies that come in,” Trump said, possibly referring to movies that are financed and distributed by American companies but filmed elsewhere.The Motion Picture Association of America, the organization representing major US studios, declined to comment on Trump’s announcement. On Monday a White House spokesperson, Kush Desai, said, “while no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.” A wide array of movies, from “low-budget indies to studio blockbusters,” are “currently being made in countries like the U.K., France, Germany, and Hungary,” the entertainment trade magazine Variety noted on Monday while conveying “shock and disbelief across the European film industry.”
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