US president claims that Hollywood is present process a ‘very quick loss of life’ regardless of raking in $30bn in revenues in 2024.
United States President Donald Trump has introduced plans to impose a one hundred pc tariff on international movies, claiming that Hollywood is present process a “very quick loss of life” as a result of abroad competitors.
In a social media put up on Sunday, Trump stated he had directed the US Division of Commerce and the US Commerce Consultant to instantly start the method of imposing the tariff on “any and all” movies produced in “international lands”.
“Different Nations are providing all kinds of incentives to attract our filmmakers and studios away from america. Hollywood, and plenty of different areas inside the usA., are being devastated,” Trump stated on his Reality Social platform.
“This can be a concerted effort by different Nations and, due to this fact, a Nationwide Safety risk. It’s, along with every thing else, messaging and propaganda!”
Requested by reporters concerning the tariff in a while Sunday, Trump claimed that the US was making “only a few films now”.
“Different nations, a whole lot of them, have stolen our film business,” he stated. “If they aren’t keen to make a film inside america, we should always have a tariff on films that are available.”
Trump didn’t elaborate on how such a tariff would work in sensible phrases, together with whether or not it might be utilized to Hollywood options that contain capturing and manufacturing throughout a number of international locations.
Trump’s announcement follows his appointment in January of actors Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as “particular ambassadors” tasked with bringing again enterprise that Hollywood has misplaced to different international locations.
On the time, Trump stated the actors can be “my eyes and ears” as he set about instituting a “Golden Age of Hollywood”.
Hollywood has confronted robust enterprise circumstances in recent times amid the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strike.
Hollywood studios grossed about $30bn worldwide final yr, down about 7 p.c from 2023, based on Gower Avenue Analytics.
Whereas final yr’s efficiency was an enchancment on revenues in 2020, 2021 and 2022, it was nonetheless about 20 beneath the pre-pandemic common, based on Gower Avenue Analytics.