Will tariffs make America great?

[The Don]

Even if it were possible for the Trump administration to somehow turn a voluntary organization within the film industry into a government agency with authority over the film industry, the “basic mechanism” for what you’re describing is most certainly not in place.

The MPAA doesn’t not perform any kind of oversight. They merely screen a movie and tell the filmmakers the rating. The filmmakers remain completely free to make any kind of movie with any kind of content that they want.

And then you still have the problem of lack of force of law (“by decree” does not grant that to the government) that the high-powered film industry attorneys will definitely push back against with great enthusiasm and legal standing.

Of course there's a mechanism in place. A body reviews films and issues a certification.

Yes studios can make any kind of film they want but without a certificate, it cannot go on general release (or at least that's the way it works in the UK) and the type of certificate can make a huge difference to how big a release the film will get and consequently how much money it will make - which is why studios will make changes to a film to ensure it gets the desired certificate.

If the reviewing body decides that any film with a sympathetic gay character either doesn't get a certificate or gets an NC-17 certificate then children won't legally be able to see it. It's not outright banning such content but it does make it commercially much less viable. If you want your Marvel or DC universe movie to get a PG-13 certificate then you have to make sure that the hero is a heterosexual, Christian, white, man.

And regarding the threat of legal action, the US has more lawyers and the Trump administration has repeatedly shown that it's happy to simply ignore judgements against it whilst threatening the judges who have the temerity to rule against it.

 

[steenkh]

I presumed the thing that would be tariffed would be the fee for the rights to show the movie.

Wouldn’t that be a normal tax, and not a tariff? A tariff is, AFAIK, a special tax on something crossing a kind of border.
Well, maybe it doesn’t matter. Trump certainly does not know what a tariff is, and his minions have been selected for their ability to flatter the great man, and not for competence.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Sounds like it's a tariff that can be circumvented with a single offshore subsidiary

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Wouldn’t that be a normal tax, and not a tariff? A tariff is, AFAIK, a special tax on something crossing a kind of border.
Well, maybe it doesn’t matter. Trump certainly does not know what a tariff is, and his minions have been selected for their ability to flatter the great man, and not for competence.

The right to show the movie is crossing the border and the fee is crossing in the opposite direction. Same as if you purchase a software key or anything of the kind. The physical data/code coming into your possession is not the product you're paying for. The right to use it is.

Seems straightforward enough.

 

[johnny karate]

Of course there's a mechanism in place. A body reviews films and issues a certification.

There is no body that does that. There is no certification process of any kind for American films.

You should correct this misapprehension and then rethink the rest of your post.

 

[GlennB]

There is no body that does that. There is no certification process of any kind for American films.

You should correct this misapprehension and then rethink the rest of your post.

??

In the US, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) film rating system uses a set of age-based guidelines to help parents determine the suitability of films for their children. The ratings, which include G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, indicate the level of maturity and guidance suggested for different age groups.

Here's a breakdown:

• G (General Audiences): Suitable for all ages.
• PG (Parental Guidance Suggested): Some material may not be suitable for children.
• PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned): Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
• R (Restricted): Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian.
• NC-17 (Adults Only): No one 17 and under admitted.

What am I missing here?

 

[johnny karate]

I presumed the thing that would be tariffed would be the fee for the rights to show the movie.

Whether that's a distributor for cinema chains or a TV channel or Netflix. If the fee is paid to a non-US company then you pay an additional 100% tax to Trump.

The "tariff" is theoretically applied based on where the movie is filmed, not the country of origin of the production company or distributors. These would all be American companies.

 

[JayUtah]

There is no body that does that. There is no certification process of any kind for American films.

Correct. It is perfectly legal to exhibit a film in the United States without any sort of government approval or rating. This is what happens in American film festivals such as Sundance and Tribeca. Those films are exhibited for pay to the public, generally in cinemas otherwise operated for profit by private exhibitors. These same theaters often exhibit streamed content and locally-produced content.

The MPA rating system is purely voluntary and carries absolutely no legal authority. It is merely an advisory to parents regarding the reviewers' impression of the film's content.

 

[JayUtah]

What am I missing here?

An MPA rating is not required in order to exhibit a film publicity for profit.

 

[johnny karate]

??

In the US, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) film rating system uses a set of age-based guidelines to help parents determine the suitability of films for their children. The ratings, which include G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, indicate the level of maturity and guidance suggested for different age groups.

Here's a breakdown:

• G (General Audiences): Suitable for all ages.
• PG (Parental Guidance Suggested): Some material may not be suitable for children.
• PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned): Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
• R (Restricted): Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian.
• NC-17 (Adults Only): No one 17 and under admitted.

What am I missing here?

Those are ratings, not certifications. And they are completely voluntary and have zero legal standing.

American movies are in no way, shape, or form required to be certified in any way to be shown in America.

 

[johnny karate]

The right to show the movie is crossing the border and the fee is crossing in the opposite direction. Same as if you purchase a software key or anything of the kind. The physical data/code coming into your possession is not the product you're paying for. The right to use it is.

Seems straightforward enough.

Even if this were feasible, it would only apply to movies produced by foreign companies looking to show them in America. What we're talking about is American production companies and studios filming internationally and then somehow being "tariffed" for that.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

The "tariff" is theoretically applied based on where the movie is filmed, not the country of origin of the production company or distributors. These would all be American companies.

?? The film world has lots of production companies which are not American.

I thought Trump originally said movies produced outside the US. (I'm not suggesting he fully grasped the implications of his own word choice, but still...) Lots of Hollywood movies have at least some location shots filmed overseas. I think this argument is doomed to circle endlessly unless we can get some sort of grasp on what constitutes a US movie vs a foreign film.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

... What we're talking about is American production companies and studios filming internationally and then somehow being "tariffed" for that.

Okay. Is that really much different from a US-built car assembled from foreign made parts? If you pay foreigners to shoot your movie, or edit your movie or record the soundtrack or any of the other processes involved, you pay Trump what you pay them.

 

[johnny karate]

?? The film world has lots of production companies which are not American.

I thought Trump originally said movies produced outside the US. (I'm not suggesting he fully grasped the implications of his own word choice, but still...) Lots of Hollywood movies have at least some location shots filmed overseas. I think this argument is doomed to circle endlessly unless we can get some sort of grasp on what constitutes a US movie vs a foreign film.

The country of origin of the studio or production company would usually determine the nationally of the movie. But what complicates even that is the international partnership on producing movies that is becoming more common, so yes, there is a rabbit hole aspect to all of this.

Which just brings me back to my original point: This would be far too complex and nuanced for even an existing agency run by smart people to manage, let alone for these dumb ◊◊◊◊◊ to do from the ground up.

 

[johnny karate]

Okay. Is that really much different from a US-built car assembled from foreign made parts? If you pay foreigners to shoot your movie, or edit your movie or record the soundtrack or any of the other processes involved, you pay Trump what you pay them.

Automobile parts are physical goods that would require import and all the associated documentation that makes them trackable. Movies are not.

 

[JayUtah]

?? The film world has lots of production companies which are not American.

Indeed, a lot of the films I watch are not produced in America or by American companies.

I thought Trump originally said movies produced outside the US. (I'm not suggesting he fully grasped the implications of his own word choice, but still...) Lots of Hollywood movies have at least some location shots filmed overseas. I think this argument is doomed to circle endlessly unless we can get some sort of grasp on what constitutes a US movie vs a foreign film.

Indeed I have worked on American productions that shot on locations overseas. You have one kind of a "production company" that is American, but they generally don't own or carry around the physical means of production, the equipment. You get to the location and you rent the equipment from a local company and hire a local different-kind-of "production company" to provide the labor: the stagehands, catering, casting, etc.

The tariff model is based on imposing a surcharge on individual widgets arriving in a country intended for sale as individual widgets. It really fails when you're talking about the intellectual property produced by a consortium of service industries.

The President is just as inept over tariffs as he is over everything else he's attempted except bullying.

 

[GlennB]

An MPA rating is not required in order to exhibit a film publicity for profit.

Oh, cheers.

This seems to mean that "No one 17 and under admitted." isn't phrased very well?

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Automobile parts are physical goods that would require import and all the associated documentation that makes them trackable. Movies are not.

Payments for products which are in the end just bits sent over the internet would make tax evasion easier than a container load of gearboxes, but the payments are still going out of the country to pay for the work and have to be accounted for.

I'm not suggesting it's a good idea, but I don't see what the practical problem is with taxing payments for work done overseas.

 

[dirtywick]

US stocks drop as Bessent confirms no China trade talks, Trump says US doesn’t ‘have to sign’ deals

Market jitters continued throughout the day as drastic new trade data and suspended guidance from several major companies did little to quell investors’ fears.

nypost.com

trump admin keeps lying about trade talks with china.

 

[JayUtah]

I'm not suggesting it's a good idea, but I don't see what the practical problem is with taxing payments for work done overseas.

It's not clear how, when, and in what form the service will have crossed a border and thereby have become subject to a tax. If I hire someone to make a hotel reservation for me in a foreign country, and then go there to to stay in the hotel, what part of that service exists in the United States? How is the payment captured and taxed?