Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% prices on films made abroad would be “devastating” for the main Hollywood production centers in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, managed leaders.
The American film industry and the cinema channels would also be touched, studios should swallow much higher costs, and consumers could face higher ticket prices, managers and analysts.
Trump, the American president, said that he wanted to present a “100%tariff” On all the films that enter the United States because “the film industry in America dies of a very rapid death”, while other countries used “the incentives to draw our filmmakers and our studios”.
Netflix shares fell 2.5% at the start of negotiation on Monday, reflecting higher costs fears, even if media Managers asked how the prices would work in practice.
Claire Enders, a London-based media analyst, described the potential impact of prices as “beyond the devastating” for key production centers, including the United Kingdom. “These are key services for the United Kingdom,” said Enders. “We have made tandem films with the United States for 100 years.”
Enders added that it was one of the first times that Trump had targeted the services thanks to his pricing plans, which would raise new concerns for the savings led by services such as the United Kingdom.
Matthew Deaner, CEO of Screen Producers Australia (SPA), said the prices would send shock waves “in the film industry around the world.
But the leaders also asked how any price could work in practice, the films being often distributed in the world on streaming platforms and are not physical good that passes a border when shown in American cinemas.
“In what sense can you put a price on a Netflix program made in the United Kingdom and distributed worldwide on the Internet?” said Peter Bazalgette, former president of the British broadcaster ITV and advisor to the creative industries of the British government.
The fate of the industry would depend on what the American president heard by film production, and if this included the types of high -end streaming series produced by global platforms such as Netflix and Amazon which explain the most expenses abroad, said Bazalgette.
Barclays analysts said that film studios would likely freeze the activity until “there is a certain clarity on real policy”.
The White House did not offer details on the plan on Monday. A White House spokesperson told Financial Times: “Although no final decision on foreign films prices have been made, the administration explores all the options to deliver President Trump’s directive to protect the national and economic security of our country while making Hollywood very well.”
Trump Monday afternoon said: “We are going to meet the industry. I want to make sure they are satisfied. Because it’s all about work … It is an industry that abandoned the United States where it started.”
He added that the film industry had been “decimated” by incompetence and distinguished the Californian governor Gavin Newsom as “a roughly incompetent man”, saying: “He just allowed him to be withdrawn from Hollywood”.
The leaders say that free trade for the world film industry is extremely important economically for the United States, where work and facilities are more expensive. Since most funds have been won outside the United States, all reciprocal prices would be extremely damaging, they warned.
The American films and television sector generated a trade surplus of $ 15.3 billion in 2023 and achieved $ 22.6 billion in exports, with a positive trade balance on all the main market in the world, according to the Motion Picture Association. The industry manages a larger trade surplus than each sectors of telecommunications, transport, insurance and health related services, said the association.
Despite this, the United States has lost ground over the past two decades in a global battle with countries in Europe and Asia to attract filmmakers with generous offers of tax incentives to compensate for certain production costs.
Production in the Grand Los Angeles dropped by 5.6% in 2024, making it the second productive year of the Lece Levier, said the body of the Filmlais industry. Only 2020, disturbed by the COVID-19 world pandemic, had lower filming levels, he said.
Hollywood studios and streamers have rather turned to countries like the United Kingdom, which offer generous tax incentives alongside world-class facilities, access to talented staff and a common language.
The British Film Institute, in February, declared that spending in film and high-end television production increased by almost a third in the United Kingdom to 5.6 billion Sterling pounds in 2024, with films such as Wicked made in the country.
In 2024, almost two -thirds spent for the production of British films came from five major American studios and three major American streaming platforms – Netflix, Apple and Amazon.
The United Kingdom is not alone, with even higher tax reductions available in the countries of certain parts of Europe. Australia last year strengthened its tax incentives for foreign films and television series, which had already attracted films such as The autumn guy And Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
California has its own financial offers, including an incentive program for cinematographic and television tax of $ 330 million that Newsom wishes to extend to $ 750 million per year.
Additional reports by James Politi in Washington and Myles McCormick in New York
