President Donald Trump’s last salvo against Hollywood’s leakage production landed on Truth Social Monday morning, where he is committed to imposing a “100% price for all films made outside the United States”. In the position, the president accused foreign countries of “stealing” the activities of creating American films and took shots on the Governor of California Gavin Newsom for having omitted to keep productions in Hollywood.
The president’s statement was quickly exceeded in the news cycle, first by the unveiling of the Trump-Nentanyahu Gaza peace plan, then by the closure of the American federal government. But Trump’s pricing threat continues to have repercussions in the world entertainment industry, where many fear that damage will be felt long after the president’s social media post was forgotten.
“This will mean less demand for our sound courses, our technological upgrades, our crew and our training and, of course, mass layoffs,” explains Lowell Schrieder, head of Canadian talents for CK Talent, whose customers work regularly on American studio shootings in Toronto. “The impact would therefore be overwhelming. In these circumstances, the studios do not even consider shooting in Canada. [It’s] A paralyzing waste for co -productions, financing and development. »»
Ontario has long marketed its robust sound scene infrastructure and lower costs as an alternative to Hollywood. If Trump’s pricing threat was never implemented, Canadian officials fear that these advantages can evaporate overnight. Even the suggestion of such a sample, maintains Schrieder, could be sufficient to scare the leaders of the weighing studio where to place their neighbor.
Trump first issued the “100%tariff” warning in May, on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, and so far, no legislation has appeared to transform the threat into law. Instead, the discussion has evolved into new tax incentives – the new Newsom bill doubling the California annual tax credit program at $ 750 million per year, calls for federal tax incentive for cinema and television – and far from the idea of penalizing the productions that draw outside the country.
Representative Laura Friedman and Senator Adam Schiff seized Trump’s position on Monday to plead again for a federal credit.
Without concrete legislation, it is difficult to know what Trump’s “100%price” would really mean. Would it apply to films shot outside the United States, whatever the funding? What about the productions that partly draw in Los Angeles but publish in London or VFX in Vancouver? A typical Hollywood blockbuster can be assembled in half a dozen countries. How will he be determined who was “manufactured” in the United States and which international?
Uncertainty did not prevent governments from taking Trump’s threat seriously. The Australian Minister of Arts, Tony Burke, has promised that his government “would be unrevited for the rights of the Australian screen industry”. Ontario creates, the government agency supporting the largest provincial production center in the country, has published a prudent declaration noting that “it is difficult to determine the potential impacts of prices until a policy is described”, but stressing that “we are going [make] All efforts to maintain Ontario’s reputation as a production jurisdiction. »»
International producers and backlots also fear that the threat of prices could be used by Washington to take advantage of the concessions for national governments trying to protect their own cultural industries. The Canada online streaming law, which requires streaming services abroad with substantial income in Canada to contribute 5% of these income to support Canadian and Aboriginal content has been in the reticle of American legislators for years. Germany is in the midst of a heated debate on its own so-called “Lex Netflix”, a proposed law which would force the world banks to plow a fixed percentage of their German income in local production, similar to similar requirements in France, Italy and several other EU countries.
Whatever their substance, Trump’s pricing threats have stressed how fragile the ecosystem of global production has become – and the ease with which an industry built on a cross -border collaboration can be shaken. Nicholas Simon, CEO of Indochina Productions, based in Bangkok, who maintained The white lotus Season 3, Monarch: Inheritance of monsters And Meg 2said that it is the unpredictability of Trump that makes rhetoric so disturbing. “Everything came back very quickly to normal [last time] – In the space of about a week, “Simon recalls Trump’s previous pricing threats in May.” If Trump actually targets production this time, he will scare the industry and have real repercussions. If it is only its usual flatulence, it will dissipate quickly. »»
