Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said today he thinks “it’s a little bit early to try to do the math on 100% tariffs or anything like that,” after President Trump proposed a tax on movies made overseas.
“What I was actually most encouraged by was the President talked about the fact that he wants to help the industry and he wants to make the industry stronger,” Johnston said in an interview with CNBC. He was asked about the potential impact of the tariff on Disney’s business.
“We certainly are more than happy to help in terms of designing things that would make sense to make the industry stronger, and we look forward to doing that.”
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The import tax was part of a package of proposals to “make Hollywood great again” assembled by Jon Voight and presented to the president, who let loose with the tariff bit on Sunday. Amid extreme blowback from the entertainment industry, the White House said later that no decision has been made. The plan, as reported by Deadline yesterday, actually clocked a tariff of 120% on both film and television content produced outside the U.S., a move that many say risks crippling global production.
It proposes another upheaval in the repeal of the Fin-Syn rules.
But measures also include the creation of new and enhanced federal tax incentives for U.S. production like other countries have — the one item that everyone in the business Stateside seems to agree would be a really good thing.
Johnston spoke with the network after Disney reported strong quarterly earnings and an upbeat outlook. CEO Bob Iger and Johnston said the company is closely monitoring the macroeconomic situation for operational challenges but the film tariff didn’t come up in comments or questions around the numbers.
