Source : THE AGE NEWS
If Donald Trump’s new tariff thought bubble aimed at Making Hollywood Great Again is as damaging as most expect, then the US movie industry can stand in line with others – like the auto sector – that have found that resuscitation, Trump-style, has more of a palliative feel.
Trump has declared on social media that “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death”, but there were no signs Hollywood was looking for Dr Trump to apply his 100 per cent tariff defibrillator.
It was nothing short of a blockbuster announcement attended by Trump’s typical lack of execution detail to render the entertainment industry in a state of suspense, drama, dread.
Donald Trump’s resuscitation of Hollywood’s movie industry has more of a palliative feel.Credit: AP
What Trump has dubbed his response to a national security threat looked more like high-visibility distraction and a chest-thumping offering of red meat to his base.
Like the big US car makers that import some vehicles or components from lower-cost countries, the film industry often uses countries with lower labour costs or with production tax incentives for filming or other parts of the production process.
Among them, Australia (which has been referred to as Hollywood Down Under), New Zealand and the UK would be direct marks. Just under half of the money Australia spends on screen production is directed to foreign products.
Only this week, two of America’s largest auto makers, GM and Ford, have outlined the financial hit of up to a combined $US10 billion ($15.5 billion) in 2025 due to Trump’s tariffs. Other companies in sectors like aviation and logistics have pulled profit forecasts, professing a tariff-induced lack of visibility on future damage to their earnings prospects.
Even the maker of the popular Barbie doll withdrew its profit guidance on the back of tariff concerns!
While Hollywood is the epicentre of the world’s film and television making, the movie industry has developed into an intricately woven global business involving geographic diversity in the use of production facilities, acting talent, filming locations and, ultimately, customers.
Chris Hemsworth in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, which was largely filmed in Australia.Credit: Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios
This has been turbocharged in recent years by streaming companies like Netflix that rely on global productions to colonise and monetise audiences.
Trump’s plans to wind back globalism by 30 years is a damaging exercise in unscrambling an egg.
Other countries, like Australia, have used financial incentives to lure moviemakers to their shores.
By contrast, Trump is using the tariff stick rather than the carrot to bring the industry back to the US fold.
Industry insiders insist that the way to revive the US creative economy is to offer tax breaks, rather than build a wall of tariffs.
But the more immediate question is: just how would tariffs be applied?
Would it be applied to that part of the process that used overseas production? Would it apply to foreign movies or television series and be taxed at the box office, or result in higher costs for streaming companies that are passed on via subscriptions?
Would Hollywood studios need to photoshop backdrops of the Pyramids, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum etc to create those international espionage movies?
Mission: Impossible would surely live up to its name. And would James Bond need renaming to James Conned?
Perhaps Trump could play the Pope in the sequel to Conclave.
Donald Trump shared on social media what appeared to be an artificial intelligence-generated photo of himself wearing the traditional vestments of the Pope.Credit: X
Seems like he and his bizarre troika of topic advisers, Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, haven’t yet nutted out those details.
Just why Trump has chosen now to throw a grenade into Hollywood is another worthy question.
Having partly walked back many of his other initial blockbuster announcements, and slightly toned down his trade rhetoric, there is a belief in some camps that the Hollywood ‘rescue’ was an explosive announcement aimed at reminding people that he hasn’t missed a beat in his aspiration to Make America Great Again.
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