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Will The Tariffs Help Kill "Hollywood North?"
If you ever watch the credits of many of your favourite TV shows, you've no doubt been surprised by how many of them have been shot in Canada. CBS' "Tracker" and "Ghosts" are just two examples of the many U.S. programs produced here. Fox's "Animal Control" is filmed in Vancouver. So is CBS' "Fire Country." I believe NBC's "The Irrational" is also done in front of a Canuck crew.
And that's just a small list. Toronto studios are already filled with a ton of American TV and movies in production.
I can't help but wonder how much the U.S. tariffs will hurt the industry here. The key reason so many American shows come to Canada is because it's much cheaper. And the crews are very talented. Will the penurious penalties from down south cause some or all of these shows to return south of the border? What will this mean for the Canadian production industry, currently at peak capacity?
It's not just food, cars, gas and other commodities that will be affected. I fear those in an otherwise currently booming industry will be, too.
- paterson1
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Re: Will The Tariffs Help Kill "Hollywood North?"
Absolutely this will be a problem with US production in Canada. Mr. Trump's goal is to get any manufacturing and most business to locate back south of the border. Can't see why film and TV production would be any different. And Trump is very interested in media.
In addition to our crews and studios our big advantage, as already mentioned above, would be the difference in our dollar. To a lesser extent tax incentives. However most American states also have tax breaks and incentives for film/TV production, so these aren't as big a deal as before.
Like everything else, it will come down to money. Even with tariffs or anything else the US government has in mind, if filming is still cheaper here, production will mostly continue. If not, or no significant savings, it is good-bye.
- TomTV
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Re: Will The Tariffs Help Kill "Hollywood North?"
I just can't see this adversely affecting Hollywood North unless Trump somehow directly penalizes any studio doing business outside of the USA, he'd have to impose some kind of bizarre fine on them because it's not like the studios get any federal funding like other industries do e.g. universities or colleges, that he could pull.
It's so expensive to film city locations in the USA that Toronto and Vancouver would still be preferable to New York or Chicago, and our loonie is at 69cents US right now. Come on, those savings are Huuuuuuge as the orange moron would put it.