Movie Tarrifs

[Marcel Birgelen]

Then you could use assigned values, I suppose.

The labour rate for occupation Y in the US is $X. Therefore, the work in countries other than the USA is valued at $X per hour for purposes of taxation.

Hours worked x assigned value = 100% tax payable.

Yeah, it all sounds nice and dandy, until you start to dig into the deeper complexities this this will cause...

Let's say I rent a studio over in the U.K. to shoot part of a U.S production. That studio comes included with all kinds of services, like some basic rigging, maybe even some lightning services, all kinds of other technical services, catering services, etc. They offer those services at a pre-negotiated fixed rate per day. Instead of just sending me the invoice that essentially amounts to days * fee, they now also have to give me a breakdown of how many labor hours were involved by all the different functions that worked on the studio services?

This reminds me of how healthcare is generally a messed up situation, wherever you look: About 20% to 30% of all the efforts are lost in administration alone.

I thought this government was all in on cutting red tape? To me it looks like someone is finding a new warehouse with lightyears worth of red tape, ready to be dispensed, every single day...

Also, how is this whole tariff system going to work anyway? If I import a piece of steel into the U.S., I pay tariff at the border for that piece of steel, once it's in, then I can essentially do whatever I want with it, without being subjected to tariffs again. How does this work with movies? Do I need to pay the tariff once the movie crosses over into U.S. territory? Do I need to pay "tariffs" every time I, as the distributor, sell a license to it?

Looking from another angle... I think that movies pretty much fall under "Free speech and expression". Slapping a flat tariff on those might have some legal consequences down the road. What's next, a 100% tariff on foreign books? Or a 500% tariff on foreign news?

[Ryan Gallagher]

From the perspective of a film fan. I hate it. Something like this would have potentially prevented me being exposed to some of my absolute favorite films.

[Leo Enticknap]

If he wanted to be clever about this, an easier approach to implement would be to use carrots rather than sticks. Simply offer a generous federal tax break on most of the below-the-line outgoings on a film production (studio space, location rentals, rigging, costumes, post houses, etc.) that are paid to American businesses, for goods and services delivered within the USA. The orange guy should love this idea, because he could also tweak it to stick it to his political enemies, by adding a rider that the tax breaks are only available in states in which the total of state and local taxes payable on these goods and services does not exceed 5% (for example).

The tax system and the IRS's bureaucracy is already set up to handle deductions and credits applied to specific economic activity, and there is at least one major precedent for using it to promote domestic industry ($7,500 off your tax bill if you buy an electric car, but only if it's made in the USA). So unless I'm missing something, this would be viable to implement, and the details as to what qualifies and what doesn't shouldn't be too difficult to figure out and fine tune. But as everyone else has noted, taxing the sale of movie viewing based on where the movie was made is going to be a legal and logistical nightmare, if he actually tries to do it.

[Martin McCaffery]

So unless I'm missing something, this would be viable to implement

We could call it the Entertainment Accountant and Showbiz Lawyer Full Employment Act

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The White House has issued a clarifying statement...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-hou...151814068.html

[Martin McCaffery]

Old man shouts at clouds

[Marcel Birgelen]

If he wanted to be clever about this, an easier approach to implement would be to use carrots rather than sticks. Simply offer a generous federal tax break on most of the below-the-line outgoings on a film production (studio space, location rentals, rigging, costumes, post houses, etc.) that are paid to American businesses, for goods and services delivered within the USA. The orange guy should love this idea, because he could also tweak it to stick it to his political enemies, by adding a rider that the tax breaks are only available in states in which the total of state and local taxes payable on these goods and services does not exceed 5% (for example).

That's essentially how most of those incentives work anywhere else and anything like this, would probably make too much sense. The problem here is that in this political climate, something that amounts to handouts will probably not fly. Those tariffs are being sold as a tool to make other countries pay for revitalizing Hollywood, without any obvious explanation how this money will eventually flow back to Hollywood as a stimulus.

[Steve Guttag]

Because we need yet more challenges... <sigh>

[Ed Gordon]

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[Leo Enticknap]

A lot this is polemical clickbait / dog whistle stuff aimed at the site's core audience, but one point in particular popped out at me, and with which I agree wholeheartedly:

Nolte: Only Better Movies Can Save Hollywood — Not Tariffs or Tax Cuts

Tariffs, outsourcing, tax cuts, tax credits, China, streaming, Covid… There are all kinds of excuses for Hollywood’s troubles, and now, thanks to President Trump and his Hollywood envoy, Oscar-winner Jon Voight, several solutions are being bandied about.

That’s all well and good, but the film industry’s primary problem today is that movies suck the big one.

No amount of tariffs, tax, breaks, tax credits, voodoo, or hoodoo can save an industry that reliably produces a product that sucks the big one.

And then there’s the cost. What the hell is going on in Hollywood that Godzilla Minus One can deliver fantastic (and Oscar-winning) special effects with a $15 million budget, but it costs $465 million to deliver a Jurassic World: Dominion — which, by the way, sucked the big one?

Hollywood is so void of ideas, they have turned to $300 to $400 million carnival ride-gambles that have to earn close to $1 billion — with a “B” — just to break even. And almost all of those movies suck the big one.

We all know why they suck the big one. The entertainment industry is so out of touch with its audience, with Normal people, they think we want the movies to lecture us about white privilege and global warming; that we want to see open homosexuality on the big screen and trans-freaks portrayed as normal. Hollywood insults us, condescends to us, demeans us… And this hectoring and preaching hurts the only art that matters in movies: the art of story and storytelling.

And there’s no sex anymore — except gay sex, which a lot of people do not want to see.

I’m not talking about porn or even nudity. Whatever happened to a sexy woman looking sexy? What’s wrong with a little sensual heat? Ingrid Bergman, Rita Hayworth, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, Veronica Lake, Lauren Bacall… they gave every healthy, heterosexual male a reason to live without removing anything more than their shoes and gloves. It wasn’t too long ago we had Kim Bassinger, Sharon Stone, Salma Hayek, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Halle Berry steaming up our glasses fully clothed. That’s all gone now, and I miss it.

How did the Mad Max series go from bombshells like Tina Turner and Charlize Theron, to that weird-looking alien chick with the body of a 12-year-old boy?

Men are no longer allowed to fall in love or lust at the movies — which is insane and kills the rewatch value (especially home video). And I’ll tell you what really kills the rewatch value: gay stuff.

Another suggestion would be to bring back movie stars — real movie stars who appeal to Normal People and not just gay guys. You need more Brad Pitts, Jason Stathams, Will Smiths… You need more Sandra Bullocks, Halle Berrys, Charlize Therons…

You definitely need movie stars who don’t insult Normal People, who are self-deprecating instead of obnoxiously full of themselves, and who actually appreciate their good fortune and fame (or at least have enough class to pretend they do). Goodwill is what long careers are made of.

But most of all, you need compelling stories driven by compelling characters instead of what we have now, which is the woke-raping by way of cheap CGI populated by actors and characters no one cares about.

If Mr. Whipple calls the customers Nazis and sells toilet paper that feels like sandpaper, no amount of tariffs or tax cuts will save Charmin.

If Ronald McDonald dresses like a woman, tries to groom our kids, and sells hamburgers that taste like ass, no amount of tariffs or tax cuts will save McDonald’s.

You want proof? Look at Sinners. It’s not a sequel, prequel, videogame, remake, board game, or piece of IP. It’s a total original starring mostly black actors, and it has captured the attention of the same moviegoing public you write off as racist, simple-minded, and wanting only the familiar.

How do you screw up Star Wars?

How do you screw up Lord of the Rings?

Bottom line…

The box office sucks the big one because your product sucks the big one because you suck the big one.

P.S. Why is it that left-wing Hollywood believes that the entertainment industry is the only industry that should enjoy lower taxes?

Godzilla Minus One (which presumably will cost double to see if the tariffs materialize) was one of last year's highlights, IMHO, and it certainly didn't look like it cost around 10% of what it costs Hollywood to make a movie in the same genre. A big part of the problem (which a guy from whatever NATO is calling itself now made in a lecture at Cinemacon, too) is that medium budget dramas, thrillers, comedies, etc. are no longer making it into theaters. It's either franchise blockbusters that cost half a billion, or microbudget, indie, arthouse stuff. On that point specifically, Nolte is right: tariffs won't fix it.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Deadline has published the proposed tariffs, tax credits, etc. at https://deadline.com/2025/05/jon-voi...fs-1236387042/

[Martin McCaffery]

I hope Tyler Perry's next Medea movie is the first to pass the AMERICAN "Cultural Test".

[Leo Enticknap]

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"I love the smell of paperwork in the morning..." ?

[Ed Gordon]

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[Ryan Gallagher]

There is so much political satire to make and so much talent to make it. This is gonna be entertaining to say the least.