Lights, camera, taxes: British film industry rattled by latest Trump tariff threat
British media execs have been put on edge after Donald Trump took aim at foreign filmmakers in his latest tariff frenzy.
In a brash social media post, the US president accused countries of a “concerted effort” to lure talent away from Hollywood in what he called a “national security threat” and vowed to impose tariffs of as much as 100% on imports of films made outside the US.
Trump blasted overseas films as “propaganda”, warning Hollywood was being “devastated” and the US film industry was “dying a very fast death”.
“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN,” he wrote.
The diatribe came as a blow to the UK film industry, which derives much of its growth from major US production companies. A host of recent blockbusters have been put together in Britain, including 2023 box office hits Barbie, Wolverine, Wicked and Wonka, which were all shot or partly made in Hertfordshire, as well as the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which was produced at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
US streaming giants have also poured cash into the UK. Amazon has spent more than £4bn on the UK creative industries since 2010, including acquiring Berkshire-based Bray Studios last year, while in August, Disney vowed to invest $5bn making films and TV shows in the UK and Europe. Netflix’s British royal family drama The Crown is thought to have had one of the highest TV production budgets in history.
But the industry has also come under strain from a pull-back of commissioning by cash-strapped British broadcasters, as well as from the fallout of recent Hollywood strikes.
Philippa Childs, head of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union, said: “These tariffs, coming after COVID and the recent slowdown, could deal a knock-out blow to an industry that is only just recovering and will be really worrying news for tens of thousands of skilled freelancers who make films in the UK.”
Childs urged the government to “move swiftly to defend this vital sector, and support the freelancers who power it, as a matter of essential national economic interest”.
The spectre of tariffs on the film industry has also sparked confusion as to how they might be applied to specific releases, with scripting, filming, post-production and music often worked on across different countries.
Tim Richards, Vue Entertainment CEO and founder, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “A big part of this is what constitutes US film – is it where the money comes from, the script, the director, the talent, where it was shot?”
The UK’s creative industries, which employ more than 2.4 million, are worth a combined £124bn in gross value added per year and have outpaced the growth of the economy as a whole, according to figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has put film and TV production at the heart of her growth plans pledging to “build the sector into a global beacon of home grown success” . In February she unveiled plans for film studios to be offered 40 per cent business rates relief over the next nine years to incentivise further investment in the sector.