Hollywood was reeling Thursday after Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on 180 countries sent shock waves across global economies and markets, even though its main products of films and TV are protected as services and spared the levies being placed on imported hard goods. But executives’ anxieties were focused on one thing: consumers, who in a recession-heading economy, could hurt everything from box office to advertising to streaming subscriptions.
“Tariffs specifically won’t have much impact on companies’ costs in this industry. Other than Roku, most don’t rely much or at all on selling goods,” Morningstar analyst Matt Dolgin wrote in a Thursday research note.