See my #20. The Korean film industry has been winning market share in the U.S. the old-fashioned way, by making progressively better movies and shows as their industry matures, and by responding to consumer preferences. And Korea is not a low-cost venue in global terms. It’s probably cheaper than California because California has gone so crazily off the rails, but is Korea cheaper than northern Georgia or Tennessee, which has always had an opening because of the huge country music infrastructure already in place? Not to mention being a RTW state, which cuts costs across the board even if “talent” is still covered by the SAG-AFTRA contract.
The legitimate problem in the movie business right now, internationally speaking, is the proliferation of big production tax credits to bribe producers to shift filming abroad. This is classically predatory. But this should be addressed on a targeted basis, being careful to distinguish between the good and bad actors.
A number of U.S. states are also getting into the production tax credit game. So what are we going to do internationally: penalize films shot in Ireland, the UK or Hungary because those countries are doing exactly what Georgia and other states are doing?
I don’t know that Korea is a problem in this respect. If they aren’t, they shouldn’t be penalized. Maybe they won’t be. Trump is an undisciplined talker. He grabs the headlines with bold sweeping pronouncements, and then the dealmaking begins. The problem with that, however, is that it introduces enormous uncertainty. The lead time on a major film is several years. Movie studios need to know what the rules are. This is true in any industry sector. No one is going to build a new chip fab complex, auto plant, or shipping hub if the rules change with every tweet ... and subject to reversal with the next election, which is always less than two years away.
btt!!