President Donald Trump‘s plan”to make Hollywood great again” is creating global uncertainty, but Disney only gestured at the White House’s tariff war during quarterly earnings on Wednesday.
Disney CEO Bob Iger assured investors that it’s keeping a close eye on the broader economic situation, with the entertainment industry very spooked by Donald Trump’s proposed tariff on film content produced outside the U.S. Companies across sectors are being squeezed by broad tariffs on U.S. trading parters with potentially steeper taxes to come. Many have scrapped forward looking guidance. Disney’s numbers and its outlook today were strong.
“We are monitoring macroeconomic developments for potential impacts to our business and recognize that uncertainty remains regarding the operating environment for the balance of the fiscal year,” Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston noted at the tail end of executive commentary that accompanied strong financial results for the company’s fiscal second quarter ended in March.
There was nothing more to be gleaned from a post-earnings call with analysts where Iger did not mention, and was not asked about, a film tariff. There were possible allusions to Trump’s overall tariff war against U.S. trading partners. During the Q&A, Johnston noted consumer belt-tightening in China, which the U.S. administration has hit with tariffs of 145%. He also said foreign visitations to U.S. parks are down very slightly, although U.S. theme park goers were making that up.
Iger spoke on the earnings call from the United Arab Emirates, where Disney is opening a new theme park resort on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The eye-catching announcement and talk of parks and experiences in general dominated the call with no questions or comments about the film tariff from execs or analysts.
Disney is the first big media company to report earnings since the tariff debate exploded on Sunday. Warner Bros. Discovery is up tomorrow morning.
Trump’s bombshell announcement came in a Truth Social post over the weekend, telling followers he planned to apply a tariff to “any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.” The president later said he did not intend to “hurt” the entertainment industry, adding that he intended to meet with studio chiefs to “make sure they’re happy.”
Jon Voight, the Oscar-winner and special ambassador to Hollywood, presented his plan to “make Hollywood great again” to Trump over the weekend.
Deadline got hold of Voight’s proposal document, which states that if a U.S.-based production “could have been produced in the U.S., but the producer elects to produce in a foreign country and receives a production tax incentive therefor, a tariff will be placed on that production equal to 120% of the value of the foreign incentive received.”
The document added that this was not meant to be a “penalty,” but rather was a step to “level the playing field,” keep production in Hollywood, and stop studios from “chasing the highest incentive.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged Trump to get behind a $7.5 billion national incentive program. “California built the film industry — and we’re ready to bring even more jobs home,” the governor said Monday night. “We’ve proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it’s time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again.”
