Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Donald Trump said he will impose a 100 per cent tariff on all movies produced outside of America.
The announcement was light on detail, other than that he has instructed the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to begin the process.
Mr Trump claimed that the effort was necessary to restore a “dying” American movie industry that has been incentivised by foreign governments to offshore many of its productions.
The US president diagnosed the offshore productions as a “national security threat” that is “in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda”.
“We want movies made in America again”, he declared without any clarity on how such a tariff would work and how it would be applied.
He also only mentioned films and not TV and streaming productions, which make up a significant portion of studios’ output.
If the tariffs go ahead as stated, it would be a devastating blow to the global entertainment industry.
American studios such as Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Sony Pictures and Universal are already under financial pressure as they struggle to recover from pandemic-related downturns. Cinema box office takings have not bounced back to pre-COVID levels as audiences shifted to at-home streaming viewing.
It would also be calamitous to filmmakers all around the world, including the likes of South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Australia. The US and Canada are the largest box office markets in the world and a 100 per cent tariff on imports could make some smaller and independent releases there untenable.
Australian Minister for the Arts Tony Burke said that he has spoken to the chief executive of Screen Australia and was monitoring the situation.
“Nobody should be under any doubt that we will be standing up unequivocally for the rights of the Australian screen industry,” he said.
The impact on the Australian screen sector will have more to do with the American productions that are filmed here than the local films we export to the US.
Australia has a series of tax offsets for foreign screen productions from both the federal and state governments, which has attracted many international projects.
The federal government offers a 30 per cent tax offset for productions that spend more than $15 million in the country. There are also offsets available for visual effects and post-production work.
Among the American productions currently in Australia is the movie Place to Be, starring Pamela Anderson and Ellen Burstyn, which is shooting in Sydney, as well as Runner, an action thriller with Owen Wilson and Alan Ritchson which is filming in Queensland.
Australia has also seen three Marvel movies shot on its shores as well as the DC film Aquaman, entries in the Planet of the Apes franchise, the Ryan Gosling action comedy The Fall Guy and rom-com Anyone But You. Recently, the Anaconda reboot with Paul Rudd and Jack Black was filmed in Queensland.
Since the pandemic, lower-budget Australian horror films have found surprising success in the US. The Adelaide-made Talk to Me took $US48 million in the US market and $US92m worldwide from a production budget of $US4.5m.
Exhibition businesses such as cinemas could also face still fewer releases becoming available. The sector faced enormous challenges including widespread and accelerated closures.
Upcoming high-profile American movies that were primarily filmed outside of the US include the F1 feature starring Brad Pitt, which followed the Formula 1 tour around the world, the final Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise’s globe-trotting spy thriller, and James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, which are based out of New Zealand.
Marvel is filming the next Avengers movie, Doomsday, in the UK, where it also housed production for Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movies for Netflix, which will be released on IMAX screens before it hits the streaming platform, is gearing up to film in studios in London. As are the next Spider-Man, Star Wars and Supergirl movies.
Eastern Europe has also become something of a hub for lower-budget indie productions, with the cost of filming much lower than in the US. Oscar-nominated drama The Brutalist ended up moving its production to Hungary out of necessity due to its under-$US10m budget.
Mr Trump’s stated aim appears to be to bring production back to the US. The production industry in Los Angeles has faced an acute downturn as studios chose other states, such as Georgia, or international locations such as the UK, which had more favourable tax incentives.
While highly paid producers and top-tier talent are able to travel around the world, working-class production staff such as set builders, make-up artists, gaffers and background extras have seen their opportunities dry up.
The industry has been trying to encourage production back to California, including lobbying the state government for tax incentives. TV shows Hacks and The Studio made a point of the fact they were filmed in Los Angeles.
A blunt instrument initiative such as a 100 per cent tariff on all imports may not have the intended effect if studios decide to produce fewer movies if the costs run too high.
Mr Trump has had a contentious relationship with Hollywood which has, in recent decades, favoured socially progressive candidates from the Democratic Party.
