International Insider: Trump’s Tariff Targets; CinemaCon Compiler; Toei Interview

Happy tariffs week, everybody. How’s it impacting you? Jesse Whittock here with you to highlight stories from the White House, CinemaCon and the headquarters of a famous Japanese anime firm. Sign up for the International Insider newsletter here.

Trump’s Tariff Targets

“Liberation Day”: Another week, another Donald Trump bombshell. This time guns were aimed… well, at the entire world (bar a few exceptions including Russia). On Wednesday, the President announced a tariff policy of a baseline 10% on virtually every nation, claiming April 2, 2025, would be remembered as “the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” calling it “Liberation Day.” Those hit included long-time allies in the UK, Europe and Australia, whose Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese responded by saying, “This is not the act of a friend.” Fair to say few countries were happy and stock markets are shellshocked, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down almost 1,700 points and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 suffering their worst days since the start of the pandemic. Mad Money host Jim Cramer warned the tariffs will be “horrendous” for the U.S. economy, but Trump and his team are certain that ripping the system up and starting again is the only way forwards, regardless of the short-term impact. We shall see. As for the international film and TV biz, there are several possible impacts. Our team in London immediately began receiving messages from concerned industry onlookers, wondering how they would do business with an America that appears to be less keen to work with them. Max put together this précis, outlining how the initial threats to the international biz center around global advertising revenues, with marketing budgets likely to fall and Americans less likely to spend their dollars on exports from abroad. For battered commercial broadcasters, who have been weathering an ongoing TV ad market storm since the pandemic, this sounds like pretty grim news. There’s also a sense Trump will pressure American producers to bring overseas shoots home and countries that place content obligations on U.S. streamers will draw more of the President’s ire. The Motion Pictures Association has already been fighting against levies and Trump’s government has made clear they will not be tolerated. The likes of Australia have immediately responded by reaffirming their commitments to the practice, which is designed to stop American productions hoovering up local talent and pushing up prices with no trade-off. How far and how deep will this global trade war go? That will very much depend on how far and how deep Trumps digs into the trenches.

CinemaCon

‘Bingeable’ cinema: There haven’t been any shock appearances or reports of must-see teasers from this year’s CinemaCon, where Nancy Tartaglione and Anthony D’Alessandro have been reporting from Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace. Instead, the starry trade event has largely plodded along, confirming many whispers we’ve seen on the internet for months. Sam Mendes confirmed the cast of his curious Beatles films. Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson will play the Fab Four, and Sony will release all the biopics in April 2028 as part of what Mendes called the first “bingeable moment in cinema.” Tom Holland’s Spider-Man series is moving forward with a new title, Spider-Man: Brand New Dayand it’s set for a 2026 release. Universal has committed to a second How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake. However, beyond the standard studio fare, Anthony, the consummate Deadline muckraker, broke a series of juicy exclusives from the event. Among them, he confirmed that Lionsgate is considering whether to split Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael into two movies — the film currently has a near four-hour cut and Lionsgate didn’t show footage of Michael at Cinemacon. The film stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar in the title role. Coleman Domingo plays Joe Jackson and Nia Long is Katherine Jackson. CinemaCon ended yesterday. Check out this series of first looks and reveal photos here.

Up, Up And Toei

Go, go, Toei Company: Toei is arguably the most influential content company in Japan. Known for the likes of the Came rider, Super Sentai and Power Rangers franchises, which showcase its trademark tokusatsu ‘live action special effects’ genre, and animes such as One Piece and Dragon BallToei is certainly up there with Oscar-magnet Studio Ghibli. This week, Liz Shackleton scored a major scoop after landing an exclusive interview with Toei Company CEO Fumio Yoshimura for our International Disruptors brand, ahead of his trip to L.A. to meet with Hollywood studios (wonder what Trump will make of that…). Toei is planning a $2B international expansion, which will include a “Game Of Thrones-style big-budget action drama” scripted by U.S. writers and the company’s first new superhero in 50 years. More super-sized monsters and business updates here.

‘Snow White’ In The Red

Heigh-ho, heigh-no: There’s no fairytale ending for Snow Whitewhich Anthony D’Alessandro reported on Monday was headed for an estimated $115M loss following. To be fair, there was no fairytale middle or beginning, really, with star Rachel Zegler painted as the Wicked Witch after toxic online criticism of a Latinx actress playing a Disney Princess and of her comments about the 1937 film, which she called “dated.” In February, Zegler tried to downplay the vitriol as fans’ “passion” for the beloved character, but fans seem to have stayed away from the movie. Anthony’s analysis goes far, far deeper into the numbers and the reasons behind them, so read the whole article here.

To The Max

Aussie opportunity: Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) launched its fast-travelling streamer Max in Australia this week, so Sara Merican went Down Under (digitally) to get the low down from WBD APAC President James Gibbons and Australia and New Zealand General Manager Michael Brooks. The interview followed a star-studded launch in Sydney attended by the likes of Bella Ramsay from The Last of Us and The White Lotus Season 3’s Patrick Schwarzenegger and Leslie Bibb. Brook is predicting success thanks to the high take-up of SVoD in Australia, where nearly nine out of 10 households have a subscription service, while Gibbons outlined why different platforms and pricing structures have been developed elsewhere in Asia Pacific. Max debuts through a partnership with Aussie pay-TV market leader Foxtel, which was this week sold to sports streamer DAZN in a landscape-changing deal that has an enterprise value of $2.2B. Strewth!

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: James Graham’s hot new play Punch is transferring from the Young Vic theater to the West End in the fall, per Breaking Baz.

🌶️ Another One: Peter Dinklage-starrer The Toxic Avenger will be the first international sales title for Patrick Wachsberger and Legendary Entertainment’s nascent producer-distributor 193, launching in Cannes next month.

🥵 A third: Chilean writer-director Felipe Gálvez’s second film will be a spy thriller titled Impunity that’s set around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet.

🔎 Revealed: The “flirty” BBC-ZDF spy drama announced last week will, in fact, be the long-rumored Killing Eve prequel about the younger days of MI6 head Carolyn Martens, as Max uncovered.

⛺ Fest: Aisling Bea, Lenny Abrahamson, Savanah Leaf and Prano Bailey-Bond will appear at Ireland’s Storyhouse Festival.

🤼 Disputed: Channel 4 and Michael Sheen are embroiled in a dispute over their show Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway after an accusation of plagiarism from the makers of similar project Bank Job.

🚪 Exiting: Saul Venit, the COO for scripted at BBC Studios, after more than two decades at the BBC.

🖋️ Signed: September 5 writer-director Tim Fehlbaum with Black Bear.

📽️ Preview: Qatar’s annual talent Qumra talent incubator is underway with 49 projects being supported and Academy Award-winning Brazilian director Walter Salles opening proceedings today.

🎞️ Trailer: For Sam Mendes’ debut doc What They Found.

Zac Ntim contributed to this week’s International Insider. It was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Max Goldbart.