Hollywood's reaction to Trump's film tölle idea: confusion, fear and a little hope

Hollywood executives confused themselves against President Trump's demand for strong tariffs for films that are produced outside the USA – a proposal for bombs that have been on the market for years, how films are made.

Trump announced on Sunday evening that he authorized a 100% tariff for films, “produced in our country in foreign countries”. The proposal, like many other trump-up-up tariffs, aims to bring a key industry at home.

Studios make many of their feature films in Canada, Great Britain, Bulgaria, New Zealand and Australia. Such countries offer incentives to attract highly paid jobs and present their landmarks on the large screen.

“The film industry in America dies very quickly,” Trump wrote on his social platform of truth. “Hollywood and many other areas in the USA are destroyed.”

Studio executives were unprepared.

Many filmmakers would like to work in the USA, but would rather see how the government sets up its own national tax credit. Many arguments would accelerate the death of the film industry rather than prevent them because they would increase the costs. It is also unclear how a tariff for films would actually work.

“Nobody knows, and I don't suspect that we won't do it for a while,” said a high -ranking manager of the film industry, who was not authorized to comment. “Is it going on in Germany financed in Germany? Is it on foreign financed? Is the tariff for film revenue or film costs for these projects or both?”

Governor Gavin Newsom asked Trump to create a federal film tax credits for film tax, which provides the studios that the governor in the USA film, at least 7.5 billion US dollars in incentive for the White House on Monday evening, to encourage Trump to work with California to create a federal credit dealt with the goal of domestic production.

The incentives for foreign production have taken over the production industry of Los Angeles, which is sick according to the Covid 19-Pandemie cuts, working strikes and a reduction of traditional entertainment companies after they have lost billions of dollars of streaming services to compete with Netflix. The January forest fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena tried another setback.

The production of television programs, feature films and commercials fell by 22%in the first three months of Filmla in the first three months in 2024.

Large entertainment companies rejected a statement. The President's announcement triggered a frenzy of questions, including the question of whether companies like Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon and Netflix would be exposed to the tariffs, just to photograph a film outside the USA

According to data from the film Assn. The United States is a trade surplus of $ 15.3 billion with its entertainment exports.

“This creates incredible uncertainty in the industry,” said Nick Vyas, founding director of Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute at USC. “This is the only industry in which we have created a great advantage.”

The most important details have to be worked out, the white house warned on Monday. The spokesman for the White House, Kush Desai, said in a statement that “no final decisions about foreign film tariffs were made.”

Some leaders of the crew applauded Trump's instinct to protect American jobs.

“The studios pursue cheap production costs in overseas, while they are launching the American workforce from the construction of the film and television industry,” said the general president of the Teamsters, Sean M. O'Brien, and Lindsay Doughery, director of the film department.

But a film tariff would be complicated in practice.

Similar to Detroit's auto industry, various production phases outside the USA often occur, such as adding special effects.

Tariffs are usually imposed when a product arrives at an entry port. At this point, the importer of recording must pay the tax before the article is published. That would not be possible for films that are digitally distributed.

Digital products are also not part of the normal customsization regime, which would make it difficult to determine its evaluation, said Tony Gulotta, head of main and national tax practice at Ryan, a global, tax-oriented company.

In terms of obstacles, the world trade organization has a moratorium about the taxation of digital trade, which lasts until March 2026.

It is expected that the administrative officers will meet with the executives of Studios and the MPA to seek clarity whether the tariffs are based on the budget of a film, his income, subscribers to theater ticket prices or streaming service.

Another question: Would television programs be recorded, many of which are shot in Canada and Great Britain?

“This is not a little thing,” Frank Albarella, media and telecommunications manager at the consulting firm KPMG. “It could be really annoying for the industry.”

The call to improve US production after Trump has won a trio of actors – Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson – as his “special ambassador” in Hollywood.

Voight and his manager Steven Paul traveled to Florida to present Trump a plan during a personal meeting last weekend in Mar-A-Lago.

The plan was developed after having met Hollywood unions, studios and streamers, and dealt with several potential opportunities to help the US film business. According to a statement by the production company Paul's production company, this included tax incentives for tax rate, co -production contracts with other countries, infrastructure subsidies, vocational training and “tariffs under certain circumstances”.

“The American film industry and Hollywood is a beacon for teaching the American dream for the world and an engine for working growth and career opportunities,” said Paul in the explanation.

But it was Trump himself who came up with the tariff plan, said an official from the White House.

Congress manager warned that tariffs are not the best way to strengthen the American film industry.

“If President Trump is serious about maintaining a dominant US film industry and keeping production jobs in the United States,” said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale)Present A former film producer: “I invite him to struggle with me to struggle with a national film tax credit that is the competitive conditions with overseas.”

The production that has been out of control is a decades of trend, but the managers say that their effects on California have achieved a crisis point.

Such programs such as Netflix's “Bridgerton” and films such as Universals “Wicked” and “How to Train Your Dragon”, Warner Bros. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and “The Fantastic Four: First Streets” by Disney's Marvel were shot in Great Britain

In addition to lower labor costs, the studios have drawn overseas to give productions for the audience on these continents on site. Films often collect up to 60% of their sales by the international audience.

Some experts warned that the impression of stiff tariffs could invite mutual taxes from other territories.

The news could also dampen the dealsmaking at the Film Festival in Cannes in France next week due to the uncertainty of the proposed guideline.

Senior debt loans have taken care of how this will affect the distribution, said Peter Marshall, Managing Director for Media Insurance Services at EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants.

“If you want to have a bomb declaration to frustrate the independent film sector, you would now say it shortly before the world's largest market,” said Marshall. “I think that will almost certainly throw a big pall over it.”

Times Staff Writers Michael Wilner, Stacy Perman, Taryn Luna And Wendy Lee contributed to this report.