Will tariffs make America great?

Norman Alexander said:
It's not just overseas studios that are a problem for Hollywood. It's other US states.
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Including mine. Everwood, Touched by an Angel, and almost all the Disney Channel offerings were filmed just down the road from my local Home Depot. They refurbished a bunch of warehouses into studios. For a time it was hilarious to drive through the industrial section of town and see the typical pickup trucks parked for several blocks, then one block of Porsches and Lincolns.
 
johnny karate said:
It is unclear to me how you levy and collect a tariff on a movie.
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Same way as you collect royalties for anything, demand 100% on top of the retail price or ticket price.

It would require significant infrastructure and compliance from the industry but it's not impossible. If a channel or service isn't exacting a charge from the customer then presumably they could pay 100% of whatever they're paying to show the film to the government.

How the payments would be collected and audited is a non-trivial problem but it's not one that would be impossible to solve IMO.
 
Hercules56 said:
Here's my big question: will Trump's efforts actually eventually decrease our trade deficit?
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Depends on what you mean by "our".

The UK's trade deficit with the US may shrink. I cannot see the US trade deficit shrinking because even if they import less, they'll export even less.

Trump may try to show that he has shrunk the deficit by including services in the next set of figures.
 
The Don said:
Same way as you collect royalties for anything, demand 100% on top of the retail price or ticket price.

It would require significant infrastructure and compliance from the industry but it's not impossible. If a channel or service isn't exacting a charge from the customer then presumably they could pay 100% of whatever they're paying to show the film to the government.

How the payments would be collected and audited is a non-trivial problem but it's not one that would be impossible to solve IMO.
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That would be a tariff on movie tickets, not movies. Movie studios don't sell movie tickets.
 
johnny karate said:
That would be a tariff on movie tickets, not movies. Movie studios don't sell movie tickets.
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You're quite right.

The US government could take half of the proceeds for non US productions from US sales so half of what the cinema, physical media seller or streaming platform charges

Alternatively they could demand 100% of the production costs to be paid upfront to them before a non-US movie can be released in the US.

That would leave filmmakers with a clear set of choices, get it classified as a US production and incur whatever that means in terms of additional costs, pay the tariff or don't do either of those things and not release to the US market.

Bollywood, China and most other foreign language productions would probably take that third option. British, Canadian, Australian, South African, New Zealand and the rest of the Anglosphere would probably need to sharpen their pencils and do their sums
 
The Don said:
You're quite right.

The US government could take half of the proceeds for non US productions from US sales so half of what the cinema, physical media seller or streaming platform charges

Alternatively they could demand 100% of the production costs to be paid upfront to them before a non-US movie can be released in the US.

That would leave filmmakers with a clear set of choices, get it classified as a US production and incur whatever that means in terms of additional costs, pay the tariff or don't do either of those things and not release to the US market.

Bollywood, China and most other foreign language productions would probably take that third option. British, Canadian, Australian, South African, New Zealand and the rest of the Anglosphere would probably need to sharpen their pencils and do their sums
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You're not describing a tariff or really even a tax. You're describing a mafia shakedown. How would any of this be enforced?
 
johnny karate said:
You're not describing a tariff or really even a tax. You're describing a mafia shakedown. How would any of this be enforced?
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You want to release a film in the US, you need to get a certificate which is available if you either demonstrate that the film is a US production or provide open book production costs and pay the tariff.

Of course this will never happen because Trump has no interest in actually applying the tariffs, just making the announcement that he is going to so he looks like a big man.
 
The Don said:
You want to release a film in the US, you need to get a certificate which is available if you either demonstrate that the film is a US production or provide open book production costs and pay the tariff.

Of course this will never happen because Trump has no interest in actually applying the tariffs, just making the announcement that he is going to so he looks like a big man.
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I agree with the second part, but as for the first part, I'm not aware of any agency or enforcement mechanism through which this can be done.

Again, I'm in agreement that nothing will come of this, so this is mostly academic, but a tariff as the term is commonly understood cannot be functionally applied to a movie. My only point being that Trump is a profoundly stupid person.
 
johnny karate said:
I agree with the second part, but as for the first part, I'm not aware of any agency or enforcement mechanism through which this can be done.

Again, I'm in agreement that nothing will come of this, so this is mostly academic, but a tariff as the term is commonly understood cannot be functionally applied to a movie. My only point being that Trump is a profoundly stupid person.
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Of course it can - you place it on the value of the reels of films...
 
johnny karate said:
I agree with the second part, but as for the first part, I'm not aware of any agency or enforcement mechanism through which this can be done.

Again, I'm in agreement that nothing will come of this, so this is mostly academic, but a tariff as the term is commonly understood cannot be functionally applied to a movie. My only point being that Trump is a profoundly stupid person.
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You're absolutely right that there's nothing currently in place to do this but I'm sure Elon could have something up and running in a matter of minutes.

The tariff process could be a part of the film certification process. If you don't prove you're US produced or you haven't paid the tariff then you don't get a certificate.
 
Going to be a long time before tariffs make any money for Donald.

Scott Bessent, who is purportedly the lead negotiator of Trump's trade war with China, makes clear on CNBC that there is currently zero communication happening between the administration and Chinese officials

https://twitter.com/x/status/1919421773059084713
 
Andy_Ross said:
Going to be a long time before tariffs make any money for Donald.

Scott Bessent, who is purportedly the lead negotiator of Trump's trade war with China, makes clear on CNBC that there is currently zero communication happening between the administration and Chinese officials

https://twitter.com/x/status/1919421773059084713
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But hang on for the last few weeks they've been telling us they were in negotiations... they weren't telling us lies were they?
 
Darat said:
But hang on for the last few weeks they've been telling us they were in negotiations... they weren't telling us lies were they?
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They were also telling us that billions were rolling in from the tariffs.

And that 200 deals have been done.
 
dirtywick said:
well sure. you could completely stop all trade and it would be 0. you can run a surplus even.

a better question is why is a trade deficit bad
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That would certainly be my question. Trump claims that other countries are "ripping us off" because...America can afford to buy more stuff from other individual nations than those other individual nations can afford to buy from us? I mean, ok, that's a deficit, but it seems more like a natural consequence of being The Richest Country On Earth than a problem that needs fixing.
 
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