The President of the National Association of Theater Owners made great allusions to President Trump in his CinemaCon address on Tuesday.
John Fithian, NATO’s CEO, appealed to the annual convention of movie exhibitors for the continued support of globalization in the film industry, to champion free trade and support immigrant talent.
“Open and diverse societies can drive movie attendance,” Fithian said, before displaying several big 2017 titles we’ll see from foreign directors like Luc Besson (“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”).
Fiithian then made reference to Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership, which would have empowered a global commission to police movie piracy overseas.
“Exhibitors around the world, as we know, lose billions of dollars each year to piracy — the losses would be much greater if not for global cooperation,” Fithian said.
He used the example of a South American theater chain having to import everything from pop corn to cheese to projection equipment at rates as high as 100 percent taxation.
Read TheWrap’s complete CinemaCon 2017 coverage here.