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Donald Trump wants to make Hollywood Grand again. But left to himself, he could worsen things. The American president managed his team last weekend To start exploring a 100% price on all films produced abroad, saying that the American cinema industry is “dying”. It is a showman taking. But the sector is indeed under pressure. Between 2021 and 2024, film and television production expenses in the United States fell by 28%. A host of major recent films – Avatar in 2009 for Wicked In 2024 – were at least partially filmed outside America. The way import rights are supposed to help is however an enigma.
To start, cinema is a highly globalized industry. Funding often comes from a consortium of international investors. The scripts are animated thanks to a combination of global talents, real world parameters and high -end computer imaging. It is difficult to find it all in America. Of course, Las Vegas has its own Eiffel Tower, but Netflix's recent successful program Emily in Paris would have felt much less filmed in Paris in Nevada. The training of American actors to make foreign dialects also has its limits.
To determine how such a price could be applied would be an unenviable task for a White House advisor. What is the requirement of appropriate local content? Will rights be applied to films broadcast on platforms such as Netflix, Apple and Amazon? If so, how can it be applied? Will he also apply to films currently in production, such as the last episode of the Avengers of Marvel which began to film in the studios of Pinewood in England last month? There is a risk that the answers to these complex questions can simply be reduced to a roughly simplistic formula, at the “reciprocal” price of Trump.
The administration should also be wary of reprisals. THE American film and television sector generated a trade surplus of $ 15.3 billion in 2023, with a positive trade balance on each large world market. Last year, the world markets represented more than 70% of the total Hollywood box office revenues. By being part of the tasks in the digital services sector, the president could open a new front in the world of world commerce, which Devail risks on industry.
Analysts believe that movie studios would gender the activity until politics becomes clearer. For the moment, the president has promised to meet Hollywood leaders before taking the lead. The White House has clarified this week that “no final decision” on import rights had been made. Trump also appointed his own team of movie stars, Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, to help develop a plan to bring the production of films to the United States. The diagnosis of Hollywood ailments before jumping on the pricing remedy, all would help.
The financial incentives proposed outside America played a role in the fact that productions abroad, but also have high general costs. The strikes of the American film industry have helped certain workers to gain higher wages and better employment protections, but this has also increased costs. It is often cheaper to film abroad and hire foreign filming teams and animators. That, the return juices for us, the American cinematographic investors. The United Kingdom was particularly attractive, not only for its generous tax incentives, but also its world class facilities and its access to talented staff.
If Trump wanted Hollywood to be more competitive, he could assess the room for deregulation and investment incentives for filming, installations and visual effects. Tasks will only increase the costs of industry and undermine internationalism that makes television programs and films really excellent. Meanwhile, all ambitions for a marvel outing filmed in the United States The tariff man may need to be suspended.
