President Donald Trump Laughs At China Importing Fewer American Films In Response To Tariffs
President Donald Trump reacted to China importing fewer American films in response to his administration’s tariffs on the country.
The China Film Administration announced it would be reducing American film imports in a statement on April 10th, “The wrong action of the U.S. government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability towards American films.”
It added, “We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”
This move comes after a report that China was mulling to reduce or ban the import of US films among five other options including banning US poultry, investigating the intellectual property benefits of US companies operating within China, suspending cooperation related to fentanyl enforcement, imposing restrictions on US services on China, and increasing tariffs on US agricultural products like soybeans and sorghum.
President Trump reacted to this move by laughing it off in a press conference on April 10th.
While laughing he said, “I’ve heard of worse things.”
President Trump is right especially given that American film revenue in China is minimal compared to other global countries especially in the post-Covid world.
For example, A Minecraft Movie has grossed $343.9 million globally. Of that global revenue only $14.6 million has come from China. That is only 4.2% of the film’s global revenue.
Furthermore, studios only receive typically receive 25% of grosses in China. So in this case, Warner Bros. is likely only seeing $3.65 million of that $14.6 million gross.
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One can also look at the a number of the top grossing films from the past couple of years to see that this is not out of the ordinary. Inside Out 2 had a global gross of $1.6 billion. China only accounted for $47.4 million. That’s only 2.7% of the global gross. Similarly, Deadpool & Wolverine had a global gross of $1.3 billion. China only accounted for $59.6 million. That’s just 4.4% of the global gross.
Even in 2023, Barbie had a global gross of $1.4 billion. China only accounted for $34.4 million. That’s just 2.4% of the total gross. It’s the same story with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It had a global gross of $1.3 billion. Only $23.7 million was from China. That’s just 1.7% of the global gross.
What do you make of Trump’s response?
Anything that hurts Hollywood is a good thing
China, casting about for something - anything - that they import from the USA. And this is the best they could come up with?
The trade war is ours to lose, by giving up.