Why Donald Trump attacks foreign films

“I would like to be able to erase it”. This is the confession made a few weeks ago by the director Chris Columbus, about the scene turned with Donald Trump in Maman I missed the plane 2, in 1992. The businessman who was not yet in politics would have even begged to appear the screen.

This Sunday, May 4, the American president confirms his taste for cinema by announcing “Immediately start the process of establishing customs duties of 100 %” On films broadcast in the United States but produced abroad.

In fact, Donald Trump has so far launched an investigation that could lead to customs tariffs. The investigation may well lead to an unanimously shared observation and already described by Joëlle Farchy, academic and specialist in the film economy, in her study Cinema is no longer what it was.

“The Hollywood industry, long dominant, is subject to the test, sometimes absorbed by the digital giants, sometimes confronted with countries which, like Korea or China, want, in turn, to make audiovisual a soft power tool”

Joamed farty

Donald Trump is not mistaken on the observation: Hollywood hegemony is tormented. However, foreign films do not flood the American market. “There is no massive arrival of Turkish or Chinese series on the American market. The United States is a country of film exports, their imports are thin ” assures Joëlle Farchy, interviewed by The platform.

So, would the president confuse production and dissemination? If production decreased by 26 % last year compared to 2021, films Made in USA Always represent more than 95 % of feature films in American rooms. Furthermore, American cinema continues to monopolize almost 90 % of world cinematographic recipes with only 15 % of product films.

Only, if the productions and the recipes are American, the shoots are less and less. In 2023, the number of filming authorizations in Los Angeles was at the lowest in 30 years, when the directors used their CLAP in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand or Spain. In these countries, the shooting incentives are interesting, the main one being the subsidy paid by the local authorities. Because these see it as an interest in it. Indeed, In a study published in 2018, the National Center for Cinema and Animated Image (CNC) estimated that “Each euro invested by local communities in a film, a fiction or a documentary generates 6.60 euros in direct fallout (remuneration, technical expenses and filming) and 1 euro of tourism (accommodation, catering, leisure, transport): a total of 7.60 euros”.

When Universal Studios agreed to shoot the last Jurassic Park in the United Kingdom, the Hollywood giant received nearly 109 million euros in British grant. Sums that encourage the majors to expatriation. Thus, the real target of the announcements of Donald Trump could be the American works produced outside of American territory, and not foreign films. The fact remains that it seems technically difficult to tax already American works on the United States …

On the French side, we still wonder … If Donald Trump’s objective is to repatriate filming, exports of French films could still suffer from customs duties. Especially since a few rare exceptions, France is already struggling to export its films across the Atlantic. “These customs duties may cause difficulties in a handful of French films that seek to export to the United States”relativizes Joëlle Farchy.

Florencia Gil, head of international sales at Urban Sales – company selling French films abroad – is more worried: “If it is put in place, there will be a big impact for us. We will no longer sell in the United States ” she believes. For her, the American market was already complicated: “The public is not used to subtitles. We cannot broadcast an author’s film only Los Angeles or New York. »» Of the 5 % of foreign films which are broadcast in the 51 American states, “The 3 quarters are English -speaking”specifies the academic Chloé Delaporte, author of cinema geopolitics by Éditions Le Cavalier Bleu.