Executives from several of Hollywood’s major studios met Friday by phone with the Motion Picture Association to discuss the foreign film tariff Donald Trump called for earlier this week.
Details about the meeting, organized by MPA CEO Charles Rivkin, have not been made public. However, two individuals with knowledge of the proceedings told TheWrap that it began with discussion of what studio bosses want Trump to know about the current state of play for production, before eventually turned to California’s film and TV tax credit incentives.
Their conversation reflected public sentiments shared by several studio executives who spoke Wednesday at the Milken Global Conference, TheWrap learned: that U.S. film and TV production problem is, essentially, a California problem.
“So, while it’s true a lot of production has left the United States, it’s even worse for California, and there are a lot of people — including our companies — that are working on this with the state government and trying to come up with different bills that will help,” said Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja, who was present at the MPA meeting with motion picture group chairman/CEO Tom Rothman.
Another individual with knowledge of Friday’s Zoom called downplayed its significance, telling TheWrap it was very similar to the routine meetings that the MPA has with member studios and that nothing concrete came out of it as the studios are still waiting to see when or even if Trump will follow through on comments made during a Monday press briefing that he wants to meet with Hollywood executives at the White House.
Participants in Friday’s call have not been made public, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the meeting was happening this week, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman, Amazon MGM Studios’ chief Mike Hopkins, Universal Pictures chair and NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios chief Donna Langley, Paramount Global co-CEO Brian Robbins, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chair Tom Rothman, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav were expected to call in.
Although the industry would clearly welcome help from government to spur more domestic production, the solution Trump proposed on Sunday — a 100% tariff on all movies made outside of the United States — isn’t one that anybody wanted. And even if it was, it would be extremely difficult to implement in any rational way.
Trump’s proposal, presented via his social media platform Truth Social, came after a meeting with actor Jon Voight, one of his “Hollywood ambassadors.” The president subsequently acknowledged that he hadn’t spoken to industry leaders before going public with the idea.
As an indication of how different Trump’s thinking on this matter may be from Hollywood leaders’, the president described tax incentives and other tactics used by foreign countries to attract movie productions as “a national security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda.”
Trump’s call for the film tariffs left Hollywood reeling and has since produced a very disunited response from the entertainment industry.
The MPA has not responded to a request for comment from TheWrap.
