Why Trump tariffs could be a disaster movie for Hollywood
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” President Trump posted this month. “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA, are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat”.
He continued by saying he would institute “a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
His nationalistic plea echoed his words in 2020 when Asian film Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars. Calling it “a movie from South Korea”, he asked his crowd of supporters “Can we get, like, Gone with the Wind back, please?” But this move could hurt the very industry Trump is purporting to protect.
He’s right when he says many major Hollywood films are produced outside the US, although whether it’s a concerted effort to destabilise the US economy is questionable. It’s a fact that a lot of big budget films are drawn to countries with attractive tax breaks, with studios often opting for the nation with the most tempting terms at the time.
It’s why many hits of the 2000s were filmed in Australia or New Zealand (Lord Of The Rings, Avatar, The Matrix), and why the Star Wars and Marvel films have favoured Britain from the 2010s to this day.
The exodus is also slightly self-inflicted. Iconic American cities are prohibitively expensive places to film – and nowhere more so than Trump’s home state. Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (2023) opted to transform Glasgow city centre into 1960s New York rather than foot the bill to close down Fifth Avenue, while last year’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire filmed in Britain and added Manhattan landmarks later. Manchester’s Northern Quarter has also doubled for NYC in Sony’s Morbius and the first Captain America movie.
While it’s romantic to imagine a time when Hollywood backlots were filled with the biggest productions, this hasn’t been the case for a long time. It poses a difficult question for the US film industry: what is an American-made film, and what counts as “produced in foreign lands”?
Shooting and post-production often involves several countries working together at once, so the question of its nationality is opaque. If Trump refers to “American Made” as a film shot on American soil, then Star Wars, Batman, The Avengers, and Mission: Impossible would be considered “foreign”. Then we have the bizarre situation of Amazon-owned James Bond being a US domestic product.
Given the US Box Office top 50 last year was entirely occupied by what would usually be defined as “American” movies, it seems as though America’s own studio system will be among the worst affected by any new tariffs.
While far from “dying”, Hollywood has been left battered and bruised from the quadruple whammy of a pandemic, strikes, a declining economy, and superhero fatigue.
Hollywood’s issue is not demand, it’s supply, as it looks for the next big thing to replace superheroes to bring in the big bucks.
The President has recently walked back his comments, saying: “I’m not looking to hurt the industry,” saying that he would work with studios to “make sure they’re happy”. Yet, some damage may have already been done by his tariff threat, with studios voicing concerns about the future. By misinterpreting what Hollywood needs, Trump could further hinder its recovery.