'Makes no sense': Hollywood shocked by Trump's film tariffs

Hollywood reacted with scepticism on Monday to US President Donald Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs on foreign films, with movie insiders calling it a policy made up on the fly by a president who fails to understand how the industry works.

- ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

“It makes no sense,” entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel said of Trump's idea.

Mr Handel told AFP that many US productions, from James Bond flicks to the Mission Impossible franchise, are filmed abroad for obvious creative reasons.

“If the stunt is Tom Cruise climbing up the Eiffel Tower, what are we supposed to do, shoot at the replica Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas?” Mr Handel said. “I mean, it’s just nonsensical.”

Writing on his platform Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump said: “I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”

“WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he wrote.

His words plunged the movie industry into uncertainty as entertainment companies saw their stock prices fall, unions struggled to understand if the bombshell also applies to TV series and everyone wondered if the policy could even be enforced.

Mr Handel said movies involve intellectual property.

“You can buy a movie ticket, but you don’t buy a movie the way you buy a piece of clothing or an automobile,” which can be taxed as they cross a border into the United States, he said.

Even if a system could be devised to impose tariffs on movies filmed outside the United States, such levies would do more harm than good to the US industry, Mr Handel said.