• Keke Palmer has been acting since she was 10, but told BI she didn't feel adequately paid until 2022.
• She said that she doesn't compare herself to others in Hollywood because she feels she's not on an even playing field.
• Palmer said that's why she's diversified her income sources.

Keke Palmer has worked in Hollywood since she was 10 — but when asked by Business Insider when she felt adequately paid, the 31-year-old said: "'Nope,' that was probably the first time."

Palmer played Emerald Haywood in Jordan Peele's 2022 horror movie, in which she and Daniel Kaluuya play siblings who try to get a photo of a murderous UFO to sell the image for money.

Before "Nope," Palmer led the Nickelodeon series "True Jackson, VP," which ran from 2008 until 2011, starred in the 2015 slasher comedy "Scream Queens" created by Ryan Murphy, and voiced the mammoth Peaches in multiple "Ice Age" movies. Palmer's first prominent movie role was at the age of 12 in 2006's "Akeelah and the Bee," in which she starred opposite Angela Bassett.

Palmer, who is also a singer, TV host, author, and podcaster, said that gender and racial inequalities are very real in Hollywood, but she doesn't dwell on them.

"I don't compare — especially as a Black person, a Black woman — because it's not a fair thing to do to myself," Palmer continued. "I don't think that comparing oneself makes sense in any regard, because you're not at the same vantage point, beginning or otherwise, as someone else."

She added that "if you are getting your needs met, that has to be at the forefront of your mind. That doesn't mean that everything is fair, but it's an important thing to think about and have a particular perspective about."

Palmer encourages other actors in Hollywood to diversy their income streams

Palmer said it's one of the reasons she's diversified her income streams, including owning multiple production companies, and has encouraged others to do the same.

"It's essentially why I turned my brand into a holdings company with subsidiaries. You have to diversify," Palmer said.

It's increasingly common for A-listers to launch multiple businesses to increase career longevity. Rihanna has Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty. Kim Kardashian launched Skims, and Reese Witherspoon's media company, Hello Sunshine, is among the most successful in Hollywood.

In recent years, Black actors, including Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Mo'Nique, and Taraji P. Henson, have spoken out about not being paid fairly on account of their race and gender.

In a 2023 SiriusXM interview, Henson confirmed rumors that she considered quitting Hollywood over pay inequality.

"I'm just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do [and] getting paid a fraction of the cost," she said tearfully. "I'm tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over. You get tired. I hear people go, 'You work a lot.' Well, I have to."

• YouTube is stepping up its efforts to help its creators win an Emmy.
• The platform hosted its first "For Your Consideration" event for awards voters on Sunday.
• YouTubers like Sean Evans and Michelle Khare are vying for nominations this year.

From "Beast Games" to "Paul American" to Ms. Rachel, Hollywood wants a piece of YouTube.

But the video giant, which stopped making its own original content in 2022, isn't sitting idly by while streamers like Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Netflix court its creators. Behind the scenes, the company is working to elevate its native content within Hollywood and prove its creators are worthy of the industry's highest honors.

One key component is YouTube's Emmys push. A creator has never won a Primetime Emmy — TV's most prestigious award — in a main, televised category for their show, a YouTube spokesperson said.

While creators have nabbed nominations and wins in the past, the company is pulling out all the PR and marketing stops for a different outcome.

In addition to the cultural cache, a win could sway more ad budgets reserved for premium TV in YouTube's direction, as The Wall Street Journal reported.

For the first time this year, YouTube hosted a "For Your Consideration" event in Los Angeles, escalating its efforts to nab an Emmy for its creators. It's not alone; earlier this month, Amazon pushed YouTube's most popular creator, MrBeast, for Emmy consideration at its own FYC event.

These events convene awards voters — in this case, members of the Television Academy — to screen content and introduce them to prospective nominees. Emmy nominations are set to be announced on July 15.

This year, YouTube is backing three creators who self-submitted for Primetime nominations, including Sean Evans' "Hot Ones" in the Outstanding Talk Series category; Rhett and Link's "Good Mythical Morning" for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series; and Michelle Khare's "Challenge Accepted" for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special.

YouTube's event, held on Sunday, featured screenings and conversations with each of the creators. There were also themed food trucks — such as the "be your mythical best" bean burger and "Challenge Accepted" fuel bowls — and recreations of each creator's sets for guests to take photos at and tag on social media.

YouTube does not fund individual creators' Emmy submissions or FYC campaigns in their entirety, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

It's providing PR and marketing support, as it did last year. In addition to the event, this support includes drumming up press for the shows, and running billboards timed to the Upfronts and Cannes Lions advertising events, as well as across Los Angeles this summer.

A win for the creator economy at large

Khare, who has 5 million YouTube subscribers, told BI she isn't sure whether her series "Challenge Accepted" would have been greenlit in the traditional studio system. The show sees her try out difficult jobs like FBI hostage negotiation and joining the traveling circus. The challenges can be dangerous and the shoots long.

That's why she said an Emmy nomination would mark a win for the creator economy writ large.

"Anytime a creator in the digital landscape does something, it's paving a new way for everybody exterior to the traditional Hollywood system," she said.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in a Hollywood Reporter op-ed that YouTubers deserve Emmys and the Television Academy should consider expanding its categories.

The Emmys "should reflect what viewers are actually watching on their TV screens," he said — a nod to YouTube's growing dominance in the living room.

Many creators "operate as full-fledged studios with writers' rooms, production teams, and genre-defining formats," Angela Courtin, YouTube's VP of marketing for connected TV and creative studio, told BI in a statement. "It is only fitting that their creative achievements be honored alongside Hollywood's most celebrated figures."

In addition to its FYC efforts, YouTube has helped creators get into film festivals, the spokesperson said. Khare had a screening at the Montclair Film Festival last year, and Evans and "Good Mythical Morning" were both at Sundance and SXSW this year.

YouTube's efforts to position its content alongside traditional TV don't stop there. YouTube is also readying a "Shows" feature for its TV app to give episodic content more of a polish. First announced in September and touted at YouTube's Brandcast advertising event, Shows organizes YouTube series into seasons and episodes on dynamic landing pages.

• Google unveiled Flow, an AI moviemaking tool, at the IO conference.
• Flow uses Google's latest AI models to generate visuals, sound effects, and dialog.
• AI-generated content could challenge traditional studios like Netflix.

Technologist Luis von Ahn was recently asked if AI is a threat to the company he runs, Duolingo.

He said many companies could be disrupted, including Netflix.

"That's one of the things that is scary about the world that we live in," von Ahn said. "With AI and large language models, we're undergoing a platform shift."

"I'm not super worried, but you just never know. And it's not just for Duolingo, it could be all kinds of things, right?" he added. "I mean, it could be a threat for Netflix. It could be that just a large language model — just press a button and it makes you the perfect movie."

This was a couple of weeks ago, and I thought he was overselling it a bit. That's until I got a glimpse of Flow, a new AI-powered moviemaking tool that Google unveiled on Tuesday.

At the Google I/O conference in Silicon Valley, the company showed off this new technology, along with some illustrative movie clips created by filmmakers who had early access to Flow. 

Flow was built on top of Imagen 4 and Veo 3, the latest versions of Google's image and video-generation AI models. The company says the updated Veo model creates better visuals and can now generate sound effects, background noises, and even dialog.

If you give it a prompt describing characters and an environment, and suggest a dialog with a description of how you want it to sound, it produces a film. In one illustrative clip Google shared, two animated animals talked with each other. (To me, it looked very similar to a Pixar movie).

Flow is designed to help creators produce high-quality cinematic video from text descriptions. Users can also bring their own images and other files into Flow. It integrates precise camera movements, including the ability to request specific camera angles, such as an 8-millimeter wide-angle lens.

You can edit the film, too, within Flow.

In one example shared by Google, a user requests a scene of an old man and a friendly bird driving a black convertible off a cliff. The car begins to fall, but using Flow, the scene is swiftly changed and extended using AI so that the bird in the car starts flapping its wings and flying instead. The edit seamlessly retains character and scene continuity. 

Implications for Netflix and traditional studios

While Google positions Flow as a tool to empower filmmakers, the broader implications are clear: AI-generated content could one day challenge human-created productions in quality, cost-efficiency, and scale. For companies like Netflix, which have built empires on high production-value storytelling, AI poses both an opportunity and a threat.

On one hand, AI tools could accelerate content development, reducing production timelines and budgets. On the other hand, it could open the door for a flood of content from smaller studios, individual creators, or even consumers, eroding the competitive advantage of traditional production pipelines.

Moreover, AI-generated media could be hyper-personalized. Imagine a future where viewers select themes, genres, or even actors — and the platform generates a custom film on demand. Just like Duolingo's von Ann described earlier this month. That could shift power away from major studios and toward platforms that control the underlying AI infrastructure, such as Google.

On a recent podcast, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the internet giant thought hard about acquiring Netflix years ago. Now, maybe he doesn't need to do that deal.  

The road ahead

Google's Flow is another sign of a broader trend, which is that AI may be democratizing creativity. While Netflix and legacy studios may initially integrate these tools to enhance production, the long-term landscape could resemble the transformation seen in music, publishing, and software coding — where AI tools and platforms radically lower the barrier to entry for more people.

The key question isn't whether AI will change filmmaking — it already is. The question is whether established players like Netflix will ride the wave or be overtaken by it.

As AI continues to evolve, so too must the business models, strategies, and creative visions of Hollywood's biggest names. The age of algorithmically generated storytelling is arriving sooner than we think.

• Amazon has re-upped MrBeast's "Beast Games" for two more seasons despite controversies.
• The hit show became a tipping point in Hollywood, with streamers seeking more creator-led shows.
• Donaldson said creators haven't always had "a good rep" with streamers.

Amazon can't get enough of Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson.

The streamer has renewed his competition series "Beast Games" for two more seasons, undeterred by the controversies surrounding the hit show.

It illuminates the power of YouTube's biggest star — and the growing influence digital creators are amassing in Hollywood.

The renewal isn't entirely surprising given the show's success. "Beast Games" drew 50 million views in 25 days and is Amazon's most-watched unscripted series of all time.

However, the show was also poorly reviewed by critics and spurred complaints about the filming conditions and injuries. Donaldson is being sued by former contestants as well.

Business Insider previously reported that before "Beast Games" aired, there were worries inside Amazon. The show was meant to kick-start the streamer's efforts to sell ads on Prime, and some insiders were concerned the controversies could hamper negotiations. The two-season renewal suggests those fears were unfounded.

"Beast Games" was also expensive to make. Amazon paid Donaldson $100 million for season one, according to a pitch deck obtained by BI. But the YouTuber said he went over budget and lost tens of millions of dollars, which came out of his pocket.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had made at least $100 million in profit on the first season, and that Donaldson asked for more than $150 million for each of the two subsequent installments.

An Amazon rep declined to comment, and one for Donaldson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

'Beast Games' was a tipping point in Hollywood

Going into business with a creator can be risky, but Amazon's re-up shows it ultimately paid off.

And in this case, it's looking like a win for the creator economy at large. "Beast Games" emerged as a tipping point in Hollywood, as streamers and studios subsequently ramped up the search for more influencer-led programming.

That interest is piquing as creators solidify their status as a dominant cultural force and YouTube reigns supreme on TV screens.

Netflix has licensed content from kid-focused YouTube creators like Ms. Rachel. It's also eyeing video podcasts, as BI exclusively reported, and the company confirmed on its latest earnings call.

Some of Netflix's talks have been for potential unscripted shows involving creators, with the streamer considering riffs on reality competition giants like "Survivor" and "The Bachelor," BI previously reported.

Max has also jumped into the creator game, and is currently airing "Paul American," a reality show starring fraternal YouTube duo Logan and Jake Paul.

Before "Beast Games," a few past efforts to bridge the gap between Hollywood and the creator economy had faltered. Donaldson himself said he saw "Beast Games" as a bellwether test.

"Creators don't have a good rep when it comes to doing stuff on streaming platforms," he said earlier this year on the "Diary of a CEO" podcast. "If I fail, it's over; no streaming platform is ever going to touch a YouTuber ever again."

This latest Amazon news suggests Donaldson passed the test with flying colors.

• Kelsey Grammer says constant effort is the key to his 14-year marriage.
• "I always say, 'Love is a contact sport,'" he said. "Once in a while you got to back it up with some action."
• This is Grammer's fourth marriage, and the couple shares three kids.

Kelsey Grammer has been married to his wife, Kayte Walsh, for 14 years, and says the secret to their long marriage lies in putting in constant effort.

"I always say, 'Love is a contact sport,'" Grammer, 70, told People. "Once in a while you got to back it up with some action."

The "Frasier" actor added that it was important to keep the initial flame alive.

"I just always try to say to myself, 'Remember the blushing that you had when you first met. Remember that energy, that circulation that dialed you up just a little bit,'" he said.

Walsh, 46, is Grammer's fourth wife. The couple first met in 2009, when she was working as a flight attendant. They married in 2011 and share three kids. Grammer also has four children from his previous relationships.

The actor spoke about how supportive his wife was while he was writing a book about his sister, Karen, who was raped and murdered in 1975.

"When I finished the book, I turned her around and I said, 'I'm finished.' She said, 'Well, I've missed you,'" Grammer said, recalling Walsh's words. "I had to go away for a while — there were hours on end that I would just be staring off. But she was patient and loving through it. I had definitely lost a lot of the joy, and this brought it back for me."

Grammer isn't the only celebrity who has spoken about how they build and maintain healthy relationships with their spouses.

Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, say they don't go more than two weeks without being together as a family.

Rob Lowe, who has been married to Sheryl Berkoff for over 30 years, said he goes to couples therapy with her regularly because "it's like taking your car in and making sure the engine's running great."

Jamie Lee Curtis credits her 40-year marriage to the filmmaker Christopher Guest to "perseverance, patience, gentleness, and a really good dose of hatred."

A representative for Grammer did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

• Gold House's Gold Gala honored Asian Pacific leaders in Los Angeles on Saturday.
• The event had all the classic Hollywood trappings, including star-studded presenters and honorees.
• But AI and Silicon Valley loomed large on the night.

On the surface, the Gold Gala put on by Gold House to honor Asian Pacific leaders buzzed with all the classic Hollywood glitz and glamour.

Hosted in Los Angeles at the Music Center's Jerry Moss Plaza, hundreds of black-tie-clad guests walked the gold carpet, sipped signature cocktails, and chowed down on Filipino food from James Beard Award-winning chef Lord Maynard Llera as they gathered in 90-degree heat on Saturday.

An impressive showing of A-list talent presented and performed, and honorees included groundbreaking directors Jon M. Chu and Ang Lee, and musicians Laufey, Anderson.Paak, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Gold House, which describes itself as "a cultural ecosystem that unites, invests in, and champions Asian Pacific leaders," used the event to recognize the organization's A100, its 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders in culture and society over the last year — including Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng — and its top A1 honorees, deemed to have had the most impact within their respective industries over the same period.

Despite the spotlight on the entertainment industry, the arrival of artificial intelligence — and the influence of Silicon Valley — was notable throughout the night.

Aravind Srinivas, the CEO and cofounder of Perplexity AI, an AI-based search engine that wants to put Google on its heels, received the A1 Business & Technology Award and joked about being famous in Silicon Valley. Elsewhere, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI's Mark Chen, and Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao's names and images appeared on a screen flashing the list of the A100 honorees.

Gold House CEO and Executive Chairman Bing Chen also quipped about using ChatGPT to write a poem he read at the start of the dinner ceremony, and guests at at least one table discussed guardrails for kids using AI.

It was a potent reminder of how quickly the technology has become a part of the cultural lexicon and of the tension between human creativity versus the machine.

Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, an A1 honoree, acknowledged that "the world is changing now as we move from the age of influence to the age of intelligence, and AI is going to make groundbreaking changes in many sectors."

However, Mukherjee warned that AI may face a tougher time breaking into the entertainment industry.

"AI is going to die a very quick and painful death because people will understand the importance of humanity," he said.

• President Donald Trump just proposed an addition to MAGA: MMIAA, or "MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!"
• While the details of Trump's proposed film tariffs are unclear, many in Hollywood are rattled.
• Here are the potential winners and losers from this policy proposal.

Hollywood is the latest industry to be brought into President Donald Trump's trade war.

Many in the movie business were spooked when Trump said he planned to impose a 100% tariff on films produced in foreign countries.

Trump said his goal was to stop Hollywood from "dying a very fast death." But while there are more questions than answers, industry insiders and analysts said they felt tariffs could wreak havoc on an entertainment business already struggling to come back from labor strikes and spending cuts.

"It basically will hit the whole industry," NYU entertainment industry professor Paul Hardart said.

Industry insiders said they feared tariffs could raise costs (and potentially sink revenues if other countries retaliate). But there also could be winners, depending on what the ultimate plan is.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs" had been made and that the administration was "exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive to safeguard our country's national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again."

Here's a rundown of the potential winners and losers if tariffs come to the movie business.

Potential winner: US film hubs

Foreign countries have long lured productions with financial incentives. The five top destinations for filming were outside the US, including Vancouver and the UK, a survey of studio executives by production services firm ProdPro found.

If Trump's tariffs steer films back to the US, it would benefit burgeoning hubs beyond LA and New York. Cities like Atlanta and New Orleans have built film industries through tax breaks and lower living costs. At least 18 states have started or expanded film tax incentives since 2021.

Potential loser: Producers, directors, actors, and writers

Although Trump's tariffs appear well-intended, many in Hollywood are afraid of them.

"Tariffs risk triggering retaliation, inflating costs, and stalling productions — hurting the very professionals we aim to support," Producers United, an organization representing producers, said in a statement. The group instead advocated for a federal production rebate to counteract foreign tax incentives.

Film producer Randy Greenberg wrote on LinkedIn that Trump's film tariff proposal would "have the opposite effect" of what it intends and "will kill the movie industry faster."

Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne wrote in a note that Trump's proposed 100% tariff "would lead to fewer films, more expensive films, and lower earnings for all in the business."

Potential winner: Below-the-line crew

The clearest beneficiary from film tariffs would be those in LA who work in pre-production, production, and post-production, said Schuyler Moore, a partner at LA-based law firm Greenberg Glusker.

Unlike actors and directors, many of these crew members can't easily join overseas productions. The same goes for those in food catering or makeup artists. More films made in LA would make them busier.

"It's clearly a positive for the below-line crew," Moore said. "It's a hammer to everybody else."

However, these workers might not be better off if film production plummets and there are fewer projects overall.

Potential loser: Independent production companies

Independent production firms like industry darlings A24 and Neon may be big losers from tariffs.

Global outsourcing helped indie production companies that have less access to financing. Film financing is tenuous, so higher costs could mean fewer films getting made. It could also make it cost-prohibitive for indies to bring films like Neon's Best Picture-winning "Parasite," which came from South Korea, to US audiences.

"If you're going to do something to squash the independent sector, this is what you would do," said Peter Marshall, a former Lionsgate film executive who's now a media consultant.

Potential loser: International networks and production firms

Foreign TV networks with US exposure could be crushed if there are tariffs or quotas on films or shows, analyst Brian Wieser of Madison & Wall said.

Sean Furst, an overseas-focused producer, said European players have been trying to reduce their reliance on the US entertainment market. If overseas production is penalized, US producers filming abroad could similarly give up on getting US distribution and look abroad.

"Talk to anyone in Europe, and nobody is relying on a US commitment in a finance plan anymore," Furst said, adding that the knock-on effect of tariffs could be a shift to fewer productions with lower budgets.

Potential winner: AI companies

Hollywood has been slow to adopt AI and has mainly limited it to tasks like post-production, special effects, and dubbing.

However, AI use could speed up as filmmakers look for ways to cut costs. This could mean expanding to generating video from text prompts.

Potential loser: Global streamers

The tariffs have put a spotlight on Netflix, which has the most output and the biggest global footprint of the US streamers. Netflix has been seen by some investors as recession-resistant after reaching utility-like status.

We don't really know how the tariffs would be implemented. But Citi media analyst Jason Bazinet estimated that, in a worst-case scenario for Netflix, it could raise the streamer's costs by $3 billion a year and hit its earnings per share by 20%. He calculated this by assuming Netflix licenses 40% of its total content budget and produces half of the remaining 60% abroad.

However, Bazinet added that Netflix could limit the impact by shifting production to the US, cutting down US access to foreign-made content on the service, and raising prices to cover higher production costs.

Potential loser: Audiences

Frank Albarella, a KPMG partner who studies media and telecom, said tariffs could "inadvertently force audiences to pay more for what could become a narrower creative landscape."

Mike Proulx of research firm Forrester warned that if tariffs go through, there could be fewer films as production costs and the prices of movie tickets and streaming subscriptions soar.

"Any way you slice it, this measure equates to consumer pain," Proulx said.

• Gavin Newsom said he's ready to team up with Trump to revitalize America's film industry.
• "Now it's time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again," Newsom wrote on X.
• Newsom's remarks come after Trump said he was considering imposing a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said he is ready to team up with President Donald Trump to rejuvenate America's film industry.

"Now it's time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again. @POTUS, let's get it done," Newsom wrote in an X post on Monday night.

Newsom also said California is "ready to bring even more jobs home," adding that the state "built the film industry."

When approached for comment, a spokesperson for Newsom said the state is "eager to partner with the Trump administration to further strengthen domestic production and Make America Film Again."

"America continues to be a film powerhouse, and California is all in to bring more production here," Newsom's spokesperson told Business Insider.

Newsom's remarks come a day after Trump said he was considering imposing a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US.

In a Truth Social post published on Sunday, Trump said the US film industry is "DYING a very fast death" while other countries were using incentives to lure American filmmakers to shoot their movies outside the US.

"Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA, are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat," Trump wrote in his post.

On Monday, actor Jon Voight and his manager, Steve Paul, said they presented Trump with a "comprehensive plan" to "make Hollywood great again."

Voight and Paul's proposal includes "federal tax incentives, significant changes to several tax codes, the establishment of co-production treaties with foreign countries, and infrastructure subsidies for theater owners, film and television production companies, and post-production companies."

The pair also called for a "focus on job training" and imposing "tariffs in certain limited circumstances." They added that the White House is reviewing the proposal.

Newsom and Trump have had a strained relationship.

Last month, Newsom filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court challenging Trump's tariffs, calling them "unlawful and unprecedented."

When deadly wildfires ravaged Los Angeles in January, Trump attributed blame in part to Newsom.

"The fires in Los Angeles may go down, in dollar amount, as the worst in the History of our Country," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in January.

"Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo," Trump added.

Newsom's term as governor ends in about two years, and he is widely seen as a frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

Unlike most presidential hopefuls, Newsom has sought to engage his political opponents directly.

In February, Newsom started his podcast, "This is Gavin Newsom," which has featured guests like Charlie Kirk, a right-wing influencer, and Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Jon Voight said he has presented Donald Trump with his plan to "make Hollywood great again."
• Trump appointed Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone as his special ambassadors to Hollywood.
• Voight's proposal called for "tariffs in certain limited circumstances."

Actor Jon Voight said on Monday that he has presented President Donald Trump with a plan to revitalize the US film industry.

"The President loves the entertainment business and this country, and he will help us make Hollywood great again," Voight said in a statement.

Voight and his manager, Steve Paul, said in a press release that their proposal includes rolling out federal tax incentives, changing the tax code, inking co-productive treaties with foreign countries, and handing out infrastructure subsidies to cinema owners as well as production and post-production companies.

Voight's proposal also called for a "focus on job training" and the imposition of "tariffs in certain limited circumstances." The statement said the White House is reviewing the proposal. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

"We look forward to working with the administration, the unions, studios, and streamers to help form a plan to keep our industry healthy and bring more productions back to America," Voight said.

Voight's remarks come just a day after Trump said he was considering imposing a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US.

Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the US film industry is "DYING a very fast death" while other countries were doling out incentives to lure American filmmakers to produce their work there.

"This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!" Trump wrote.

In a post on X on Monday night, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, said the state is "ready to bring even more jobs home," adding that California "built the film industry."

"We've proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it's time for a real federal partnership to Make America Film Again. @POTUS, let's get it done," he wrote.

In October, Newsom announced a proposal to increase California's Film & Television Tax Credit Program from $330 million to $750 million yearly.

This proposal aims to incentivize production houses to keep their work in California instead of moving elsewhere.

This isn't the first time Trump has talked about boosting the US film industry.

In January, before his second inauguration, Trump announced that he was appointing Voight, as well as actors Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, as his ambassadors to Hollywood.

"They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!" Trump wrote.

"These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!" he continued.

Trump did not specify how or when his tariff would be implemented. On Monday, he appeared to soften his stance when he told reporters that he would ask film studios if "they are happy" with his proposed tariff before rolling it out.

"So we are going to meet with the industry. I want to make sure they are happy with it because we are all about jobs," Trump said.

• Google has quietly launched a film and TV production initiative called 100 Zeros.
• Google wants to promote its products and a positive image of tech, particularly to young people.
• The goal is to sell projects to studios, not put them on YouTube.

Google wants to use Hollywood to upgrade its cool factor.

The tech giant has quietly launched a new film and TV production initiative, Business Insider has learned.

The effort, called 100 Zeros, is a multiyear partnership with Range Media Partners, the talent firm and production company whose notable films include "A Complete Unknown" and "Longlegs." It's tasked with identifying projects that Google can help fund or produce. The goal is to get behind an array of scripted and unscripted films and TV shows. (The companies wouldn't comment on a number or timeframe.)

Google has a few goals with 100 Zeros. The company sees it as a way to get the creative community to adopt its newer tech products and services, like its Immersive View feature that lets you see things in 3D, spatial tools that blend the physical and virtual worlds, and AI.

Google also wants to promote a positive view of its products — and tech generally — through entertainment to young audiences by helping shape pop culture.

Last year, 100 Zeros quietly dipped a toe in the water, putting some marketing dollars behind an indie horror film from Neon, "Cuckoo." In exchange, 100 Zeros' logo was prominently shown in the opening credits. Google didn't seek any publicity for the move, but it was indicative of the alignments it wants: A celebrated indie studio ("Parasite," "Anora") and a movie aimed at Gen Z and starring Hunter Schafer, known for "Euphoria" and the "Hunger Games" franchise.

In another step in that direction, Google and Range announced a partnership this spring called "AI On Screen" to commission short films about AI, with the goal of making two into feature films. Here's how it described one of the shorts, "Sweetwater": "When the son of a late celebrity visits his childhood home, a piece of fan mail reveals a startling AI, forcing him to reconcile his mother's legacy."

"Through our continued partnership with Range, we aim to collaborate with the Hollywood creative community in a thoughtful and productive way, upkeeping our ongoing commitment to responsibly support creative expression and explore the possibilities of technology through storytelling," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Google wants to make Android cool

In projects where Google is involved early on, the company wouldn't mind if characters clutched Android phones instead of iPhones and used its features like "Circle to Search." That's provided the integration isn't forced. Product placement isn't 100 Zeros' main focus, however. Google has a separate effort with United Talent Agency for marketing partnerships like its recent ones with "The White Lotus" and "Wicked" to promote the Pixel.

One of the ways Google will judge the success of the initiative is how it impacts popular sentiment around the company's products and services. Google dominates the global mobile phone market, but is outsold by Apple in the US. Apple has gained a strong following with Gen Z with its luxury image and blue text bubbles that can make Android users feel left out. Its phones have become entrenched in pop culture, appearing in buzzy titles like "Succession" and "Knives Out." Piper Sandler's spring survey found 88% of US teens owned an iPhone.

Beyond Android, Google search is losing its hold on young people, who are increasingly going to AI or other platforms like Amazon and TikTok for answers to their questions.

Google isn't looking at YouTube as a distributor

Consumer brands are increasingly using Hollywood-style entertainment to spread their messages, as it's gotten harder to get people's attention with traditional ads. The interest is welcome in cash-strapped Hollywood.

A common approach by brands is to lean on established filmmakers and agencies to develop or produce projects. A handful of brands like Procter & Gamble and WeTransfer have gone further and hired in-house expertise. Google's efforts are similar to those of Waffle Iron Entertainment, a studio Nike set up to make original entertainment that aligns with the company's goals while operating at arm's length.

100 Zeros has a small dedicated staff: Penny Lin, a film producer at Range, and development execs Casey Durant and Tony Nguyen. Rachel Douglas, partner and manager at Range, oversees the relationship with Google. On the Google side, the point person is Jonathan Zepp, the managing director of emerging content experiences.

"This initiative is different in that it's staffed by full-time people who come out of Hollywood and are housed at and supported by Range," Douglas said of 100 Zeros.

Consumer brands' flirtation with films isn't guaranteed to last. Some have been halting or slowing film projects amid President Donald Trump's tariffs and attacks on DEI. Even before the tariff news hit, some corporations that had made commitments to the space — including Starbucks, Marriott, and Southwest Airlines — laid off marketers who worked in filmed entertainment as a part of larger corporate cuts, a reminder of the tenuous nature of the work.

One aspect of 100 Zeros that people might find surprising is that it's not looking to leverage YouTube as a primary distribution platform. YouTube has become a TV juggernaut and has been working to make itself a home for premium programming. But 100 Zeros isn't trying to recreate YouTube Originals, the platform's onetime stab at making original shows, or even use YouTube as the first stop for these projects. Instead, the goal is to sell projects to traditional studios and streamers like Netflix.

• When you see a movie or a TV show, do you think about where it was made?
• Lots of people in Hollywood do — they're seeing more and more productions move outside the US.
• Donald Trump says he wants to reverse that. But his proposal is hard to understand.

There are many stories out right now about Donald Trump's call for a "100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands."

But let's give the concision award to Variety, which noted that Trump's Sunday night announcement generated many questions in Hollywood, "starting with: Huh?"

Let's also note that Trump frequently changes his mind about things, and most definitely about his tariff policies. So it's entirely possible his Hollywood tariff post leads to nada.

While we're throat clearing, let's also note that, unlike some of Trump's other tariff pushes, this one doesn't imagine a world where work that left the US long ago comes back to the country. Movie (and TV) production remains a huge business in the US, employing millions of people.

And lastly, Trump is correct in noting that film (and TV) production has been leaving Hollywood for years. Sometimes it has gone to other places in the US: Disney has made more than a dozen Marvel movies in Georgia. "Sinners," one of the year's biggest movies, was made in Louisiana.

But there's a clear trend in international production, driven by lower labor costs and tax incentives. Production spending in the US fell by 28% between 2021 and 2024, but rose just about everywhere else. "Thunderbolts," Marvel's most recent movie, is also set to be the last one filmed in Georgia for the foreseeable future — most of Marvel's production has moved to London.

So what would Trump's plan do to correct that? No one seems to have any clue.

"Hollywood studio executives scrambled Sunday night to determine what the announcement would mean for their business," The Wall Street Journal reports. "As is often the case with Mr. Trump's declarations on social media, it was not entirely clear what he was talking about," The New York Times deadpans. Stocks of studios and streamers like Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery were down Monday morning.

If you take Trump's post at face value, it does indeed pose all kinds of questions. Like: Would the tariffs apply to American-owned/produced movies, or to movies from studios all over the world? Would it apply to American productions that are mostly filmed in the US but have some scenes shot in other countries? What about movies where some postproduction work, like visual effects, is handled outside the US?

And at the most basic: How, exactly, do you tariff a movie or TV show? They don't arrive in this country via cargo ships or planes. US Customs and Border Protection doesn't sign off on their import.

My sneaking suspicion is that Trump doesn't know, either. It's just that he seems to think tariffs are the solution to just about any problem.

Otherwise, if Trump were truly concerned about encouraging more domestic film (and TV) production, he might go about it the way just about everyone else does: with tax breaks and other financial incentives.

Which, it turns out, is exactly the pitch Trump heard from the actor Jon Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, this weekend, per Bloomberg. Voight — one of three actors Trump said earlier this year would be his "special ambassadors" to bring back work to Hollywood — and Paul spent time with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and suggested a pretty normal plan, Bloomberg says: "more federal tax incentives for US film and TV production," which involves "expanding existing tax credits and bringing back ones that have expired."

Voight and Paul didn't propose tariffs, Bloomberg reports. But Trump did. So here we are. Let's see if it goes anywhere.

• Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US.
• He said Hollywood was "dying a very fast death" because productions were shifting out of the country.
• This comes as the film industry has struggled with fallout from strikes and wildfires.

President Donald Trump plans to impose a 100% tariff on movies made outside the US.

In a Sunday post on Truth Social, the president said other countries are offering US filmmakers and studios incentives to draw them out of the country. He called this a "national security threat" and proposed his tariffs as a way to stop Hollywood from "dying a very fast death."

"Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands," he wrote in the post.

He added, "WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!"

The US's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, reposted Trump's comments on X on Sunday with the caption: "We're on it."

Trump did not specify how the tariff would be implemented or when it would go into effect. White House representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Trump's comments come as Hollywood grappled with numerous challenges from strikes to wildfires.

According to Film LA data, the number of film productions in Greater Los Angeles in the first quarter of the year dropped 22% compared to last year.

The report said the decline was partly due to the devastating wildfires that ravaged LA in January, which affected about 550 unique filming locations in the city.

The domestic film industry was also affected by monthslong strikes in 2023, during which writers and actors demanded increases in wages and benefits and protested the use of AI in filmmaking.

A July report by tracking company ProdPro said the number of productions being shot in the US was down 37% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2022.

In October, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, announced a proposal to increase California's Film & Television Tax Credit Program from $330 million to $750 million yearly.

This proposal aims to incentivize production houses to keep their work in California instead of moving elsewhere.

Besides the movie industry, Trump has imposed a baseline 10% tariff on imports from all countries except China. His tariff rate for China now stands at 145%.

• David Fincher and Brad Pitt are making a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood."
• Tarantino, who wrote the sequel, agreed to let Fincher and Pitt continue the story of Cliff Booth.
• Steven Soderbergh says Fincher and Pitt are always looking for projects to work on together.

When the news broke that David Fincher would be teaming with his "Fight Club" star Brad Pitt to make a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed 2019 movie "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" for Netflix, many didn't believe it to be true. (The news also broke on April Fools' Day, which didn't help.)

Director Steven Soderbergh was one of the few who knew it to be true. As a good friend of Fincher's, he knows how close Fincher and Pitt are.

"I think they're always on the lookout for something to do together," Soderbergh told Business Insider in a recent interview, referring to Fincher and Pitt. "So this was, it sounds like, an unusual set of circumstances where Quentin decided he didn't want to do it and Brad asked him, 'Can I show it to David?' and he said sure, and David read it and said, 'Let's do it.'"

However, Soderbergh admits there is one aspect of the news that did shock him.

"What's surprising is Quentin's agreeability," he said.

The theory around Hollywood is that Tarantino, who has stated that he plans to retire after making his next movie, which will be the tenth of his career, didn't want to end on a sequel.

Tarantino's sequel script to "Once Upon a Time..." focuses on Pitt's character Cliff Booth. Along with 1999's "Fight Club," Pitt and Fincher have worked together on 1995's "Se7en" and 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" stars Leonardo DiCaprio as TV star Rick Dalton, who's struggling to keep his career afloat in the changing landscape of Hollywood in the late 1960s. Pitt plays Cliff Booth, Dalton's longtime stuntman and best friend. Pitt's performance won him a best supporting actor Oscar.

Little is known about the sequel outside of the fact that the plot is focused on Booth, and that DiCaprio could return as Dalton in a cameo role.

Given that he's friends with Fincher, did Soderbergh know about him taking on the sequel before the news broke?

"I was aware, but I was also very cognizant that this was a newsworthy piece of information," Soderbergh said. "Actually, I was surprised it took that long for the story to come out. But it's happening, and it's happening soon." 

• Disney is caught in the crosshairs of the culture wars in President Donald Trump's second term.
• The Mouse House has been an advocate for inclusivity, but it recently changed some DEI policies.
• Disney superfans said the company hadn't gone too "woke" and a conservative turn could backfire.

Is Disney too "woke," not "woke" enough, or not "woke" at all?

In our highly polarized political environment, asking a dozen people may yield a dozen different answers. But what do Disney's most passionate fans think?

Business Insider spoke with 12 of these superfans — sometimes referred to as "Disney adults" — and a clear takeaway emerged: They generally said they believed the company should take a stand on social issues and promote inclusivity, even if it meant getting caught in an anti-woke backlash.

CEO Bob Iger seems keenly aware of Disney's precarious task of trying to appeal widely to fans across the US and the world. Prominent conservatives have for years accused the company of being too "woke" — or generally too committed to progressive ideals. Iger said in 2023 that the company's "mission needs to be to entertain," meaning its content should "not be agenda-driven." Following Donald Trump's presidential win, Iger was uncharacteristically quiet.

That said, none of the Disney superfans BI spoke with — who were of varying ages and political convictions, and live in different parts of the US — said they felt the company had gotten too "woke."

Several said they felt Disney could be making a costly mistake by shying away from diversity, equity, and inclusion policies amid political backlash in the second Trump administration.

"There's a big audience out there that supports those initiatives and wants to see inclusivity, and they use their dollar to show their support for brands that support a world that is open and inclusive," said Trisha Daab, who was married at Disney's parks in 2005.

Disney didn't respond to a request for comment for this story.

'So what if Disney is woke?'

For much of the last decade, corporate America has often loudly supported progressive issues.

In that era, Disney was widely viewed as a champion of DEI causes. The company prioritized diverse hiring in the mid-2010s, started a "Reimagine Tomorrow" initiative for underrepresented groups in 2020, and added more nonwhite and LGBTQ+ characters into its shows and movies — including a gay protagonist in Pixar's "Strange World" and a same-sex kiss in "Lightyear."

Decisions like these made Disney a lightning rod for criticism among conservatives. But many of the Disney superfans who spoke with BI said they viewed the moves as a way to make everyone feel welcome.

Daab, who writes Disney-related stories for magazines and websites, said she'd seen how much nonwhite children love seeing princesses who look more like them, for example.

"I hope Disney doesn't shy away from that," she said.

Other Disney superfans echoed that idea.

"If every Disney movie was, let's just say the story of Snow White, and it was the same look, the same characters, the same storyline — it's not interesting anymore, and it's not reflective of the population," Shae Noble, a Disney superfan who lives in Washington state, said.

Francis Dominic, a Disney-focused content creator and social media influencer, said the company shouldn't have to apologize for making its movie characters or parks staff more diverse.

"So what if Disney is woke?" Dominic said.

Disney's casting of Latina actor Rachel Zegler as Snow White in the 2025 remake set some critics off, since in the original fairy tale, Snow White got her name from having "skin as white as snow."

Dominic pushed back on the critics: "It's not factual — it's a fairy tale."

Jay Yee, a 62-year-old Disney adult in New York City, said he wasn't sure if Disney had become "too woke." But the company shouldn't be responsible for representing same-sex couples or transgender people in stories designed for children, he said. It's a parent's job — not a company's — to initiate conversations on those topics, he added.

Max Traughber-Crismon — a self-described liberal Democrat living outside Portland, Oregon — said that while Disney isn't too "woke," he believes it "overcorrected" with "in-your-face" social messaging in movies like "Strange World."

"It's trying to put every personality, every gender, everything into one thing versus saying, 'Hey, we can have differences, and it's OK not to include everybody with everything,'" Traughber-Crismon said.

Can anything please the critics?

Disney is no stranger to the culture wars.

The company made waves by resisting a Florida law designed to give parents control over LGBTQ+ issues taught in public schools, known by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Then-CEO Bob Chapek tried to stay neutral, before reversing course after employees protested. This angered some conservatives, and some progressives were still frustrated.

Heightened political pressure in the second Trump era has led many companies — including Target, Google, Meta, and Amazon — to rethink their DEI practices. Even Disney has followed suit.

In turn, some Disney adults feel the company has "backtracked," said Ellie Banks, a lifelong Disney fan.

"I don't know if they're focused on core values necessarily, other than I think they're going to go where the money flow is," Banks said. "If they feel that there is a larger amount of people that are supportive of one ideology, I think they're going to lean into that ideology."

However, pandering to conservatives could backfire for Disney, as it might alienate progressives without winning back its detractors. Several Disney adults pointed to Target's flip-flopping on DEI as a cautionary tale.

John Telyea, who's married to Shae Noble, said Disney should try to avoid alienating people generally, though that's much easier said than done.

"No matter what you do, you're going to make somebody upset," Telyea said.

'Politics takes the magic out of the Happiest Place on Earth'

While some Disney superfans were passionate about the company's stance in the culture wars, several fans said they only care about quality content and experiences. In their view, Disney shouldn't be a political brand.

"I think it's really important to let the creative process drive itself without too many, in general, outside agendas on either side," said David Lewis, a Disney-focused travel planner based in Mississippi.

Lewis said he didn't see "Snow White" in theaters, but it wasn't because of a boycott. He said he didn't make time to see it, though he's excited to watch it with his princess-obsessed daughter once it's on Disney+.

For Disney parks aficionados like the Florida resident Melania Murphy, Disney World can be an escape from a chaotic world. That's why she has little interest in online battles about the culture wars.

"Politics takes the magic out of the Happiest Place on Earth," she said.

• Jenna Ortega said she misses being anonymous.
• Ortega became a breakout star after playing the titular character of Netflix's "Wednesday."
• Ortega said she enjoyed the hustle of being an up-and-coming actor.

Jenna Ortega is one of Hollywood's biggest new actors, but she said she misses being anonymous and loved the hustle of trying to make it.

Ortega rose to fame in 2022 as the lead character in the first season of "Wednesday," Netflix's second-most-watched TV season of all time. Last year, she cemented her Hollywood star status after appearing in "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice."

Next, Ortega will star alongside The Weeknd in "Hurry Up Tomorrow," a psychological musical that is a side-project of his sixth and final album of the same name. The film is out in theatres on May 16th.

In an interview for V Magazine published on Monday, The Weeknd asked Ortega if she ever misses the anonymity she once had.

"Oh, most definitely," she replied. She added she was grateful that "Wednesday" was a success, but she used to feel under "way less pressure."

"I love the hustle," Ortega said. "There's something about the actor's come-up and struggle that I really enjoyed. Sleeping in the cars, driving all around LA for auditions, and waiting for weeks, feeling sick to my stomach that I wasn't going to get the job I really wanted. The adrenaline rush of it all was so exciting."

Ortega added that her newfound fame has made her feel like she's in a perpetual "loop of anxiety."

"I hold so much more pressure and weight in my body than I ever did, and I think it's just kind of the expectation of it all," she said.

Follow the success of "Wednesday," Ortega has been vocal about her struggles dealing with her newfound fame.

In 2023, five months after "Wednesday" premiered, Ortega described being famous as "really stressful" during a junket for "Scream VI," which was shared by the Associated Press on TikTok.

"Anything that you say can be twisted in to this way or suddenly people are making assumptions about you or they're over-sexualizing you," Ortega said. "It's just like a really scary place to be because you feel like you're thrown to the wolves."

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2024, she described her experience in the spotlight as "very dissociative and alien and out-of-body."

"When people mention my name, it's almost like my name has been taken from me. Now I just feel like I'm floating and…I'm up for interpretation," she said.

Ortega will be back in the spotlight when "Wednesday" season two premieres in August.

• Brands are halting or slowing some film projects amid Trump's tariffs and attacks on DEI.
• This threatens a bright spot in the entertainment industry.
• Despite challenges, sectors like healthcare and B2B are still going strong in branded entertainment.

President Donald Trump's tariffs are threatening a rare bright spot in Hollywood.

Brands have been ramping up their embrace of Hollywood-style films and TV shows. It's a trend that's taken on heightened relevance as the entertainment business struggles to find its footing after COVID, double labor strikes, and the end of Peak TV.

But Trump's tariffs threaten to put the kibosh on its growth. Six agencies and consultants that work with brands told Business Insider that projects had been canceled or put on hold in recent weeks because of economic uncertainty.

That aligns with data about the broader ad world. For example, a February IAB survey of marketers found that 45% of advertisers planned to reduce ad spending amid worry about tariffs.

"Typically, what brands do is lean on performance marketing and pull money from top of funnel marketing, which is where brand storytelling lives," said Rick Parkhill, director of Brand Storytelling, an organization that hosts professional gatherings for the branded entertainment community. Performance marketing is where a brand pays for measurable outcomes like a sale or website visit. In contrast, top of funnel marketing is geared toward building a brand's awareness or shifting its perception. The IAB survey found that 35% planned to increase focus on performance-based campaigns.

"I'm hearing about projects being pulled, held, people being laid off, a lot of concerns about job security," Parkhill said of branded entertainment in Hollywood. "The big million-dollar-plus projects that are a year long in development — there's going to be some delays."

The chill has also had a human impact, brand entertainment insiders said.

"I've gotten weekly emails from someone who's been let go at a brand that was doing some kind of film content or agencies working in that space or a publisher, and they're looking for jobs," said Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre, which helps companies like REI with content strategy. He said it's a stark change from just a few months ago.

"At Sundance, we were taking meetings like crazy," Newman said.

DEI attacks have put a squeeze on brand films

Trump's war on DEI has taken a toll on branded entertainment as well.

Brands that invest in Hollywood-style marketing content often use it to associate themselves with progressive values. Think Procter & Gamble, whose in-house studio has backed films about gender equity and LGBTQ+ issues; or John Deere, which made a film about Black farmers, "Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land."

Two consultants told BI that the political headwinds had affected clients' film projects.

Marcus Peterzell, founder of Passion Point Collective, a brand film studio with clients like The North Face and Yogi Tea, said one client decided to stop promoting a film it had already produced and released to avoid attracting backlash from the White House. He declined to name the brand to protect business relationships.

"It's unbelievable," Peterzell said.

Why branded entertainment is vulnerable to cuts

Companies that already have a film in production are likely to stick with it, given the sunk cost. It's easier for them to hit the brakes on projects that are in the idea or development stage. Brand advisors are counseling clients to stay the course and, at the very least, continue developing projects. They're making the case that brands can gain an advantage by continuing to advertise as others cut back. And in anxious times, consumers are receptive to brand messages that are about more than just low prices.

Parkhill is planning his organization's big Elevate event in July. With tight travel budgets, he expects it to take longer than usual to fill up. Attendees can expect programming focused on why brands should keep making impactful entertainment in tough times.

"To just say 'come buy our stuff,' people are not going to respond to that," Parkhill said.

As much as branded entertainment is getting more buzz thanks to the success of movies like Mattel's "Barbie," it can still face internal resistance. Films take a long time to get made, and it's hard to prove someone bought a product after seeing a movie.

Even before the tariff news hit, some corporations that had made commitments to the space — including Starbucks, Marriott, and Southwest Airlines — laid off marketers who worked in filmed entertainment. While those cuts were part of larger corporate cuts, they were a reminder to industry insiders of the tenuous nature of the work.

That said, there are some signs of health in the industry, despite challenges.

Hershey has a widely anticipated movie in the works about the candy empire. And Toys 'R' Us is looking into a live-action film, Variety reported this month.

While insiders said efforts associated with areas like travel and China-dependent manufacturers had seen the most immediate impacts from the tariffs, they said other sectors like the creator economy, healthcare, and B2B were still going strong.

• Disney has made a fortune creating sequels and reimagining older movies.
• But some Disney superfans are growing wary of the Mouse House's strategy.
• Without new hits, those in the next generation may not share their parents' love for Disney.

Disney's movie executives seem focused on playing the hits, but even some diehard fans of the company are yearning for a change of pace.

One Disney superfan, Ellie Banks, told Business Insider she didn't like "being beaten over the head with the same story, same characters."

"There's so much more to explore," she added. Her sentiments were shared by most of the 11 fans BI interviewed.

Sequels, live-action remakes, and franchise reboots have been the backbone of Disney's movie strategy in recent years, and for good reason. The company had the three biggest domestic box-office hits last year: "Inside Out 2," "Deadpool & Wolverine," and "Moana 2."

More of the same is on the way. The Mouse House is set to unveil a third "Avatar" movie, "Zootopia 2," a "Fantastic Four" reboot, and a live-action version of "Lilo & Stitch," which it no doubt hopes will fare better than its polarizing "Snow White" remake.

Though Disney is betting on some new concepts this summer, like Pixar's "Elio" and Marvel's "Thunderbolts*," the company is leaning into nostalgia.

You might think that would be thrilling for the company's adult superfans — sometimes called "Disney adults" — whose passion helps boost the company's bottom line. But most of the Disney fans who spoke with BI said they were growing tired of the company's remake-heavy film strategy.

"It just seems like a cash grab," Banks said.

CEO Bob Iger has pushed back against the idea that Disney's strategy lacks creativity.

"Our creativity is, in fact, soaring," he said last month at Disney's annual shareholder meeting.

Iger has previously said that live-action remakes can leverage new technologies to help Disney's classic stories reach new generations of viewers.

Disney didn't respond to a request for comment.

Time to rethink remakes?

Since her childhood, Banks has loved Disney. She was charmed by the animation, art, and storytelling, and seeing "The Little Mermaid" in theaters is one of her earliest memories.

But she said the 2023 live-action remake of the 1989 classic didn't land the same way.

"I don't think I've seen one live-action remake that I loved," Banks said.

Shae Noble in Washington state also said she didn't love Disney's attempts to pluck the "low-hanging fruit," in her words, of hits like "The Lion King," which had both a 2019 remake that grossed $1.6 billion and a spinoff with 2024's "Mufasa," which grossed $722 million. While she said she felt nostalgic taking her kids to see "Lion King" spinoffs, she is also itching for new stories.

She said that while she rolled her eyes when live-action remakes were announced, she understood the strategy.

"Money talks in this country," Noble said. "And for Disney to maintain their parks and all their brands and stuff, they have to do what is going to sell."

Disney sticks to the tried and true

Familiarity breeds comfort, as Disney adults know firsthand.

"People cling onto nostalgia a lot, which is why people come to the parks year after year," said Casey Clark, who moved to Florida for the parks, where she now goes four to five times a week.

Remakes can be a good way to introduce beloved stories to younger generations, said Jeremy Singh, a TikTok creator in Orlando.

"Part of the reason that I fell in love with Disney the way that I did is because of the way they were able to take original concepts and stories, or even the Grimm fairytales, and make them into something," Singh said.

Disney's nostalgia-heavy strategy has shown strong returns, as evidenced by its 2024 film slate.

"There's still meat on the bone, and the consumer drives what they're putting out," said John Telyea, who's married to Noble. "And if there's meat on the bone, why wouldn't they go after it?"

The box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore believes Disney's film slate this year will be full of hits.

"'Snow White' notwithstanding, the future looks incredibly bright," Dergarabedian said.

While familiarity doesn't guarantee success, Dergarabedian said it's still a pretty safe bet. He says fears of franchise fatigue are overstated.

"I don't think it's so much about the number after the title, or the fact that a movie is part of a franchise or a series or known IP," Dergarabedian said. Instead, he said what makes or breaks a film is its marketing campaign and whether it can get grassroots buzz.

Is nostalgia enough?

But Francis Dominic, a Disney social media influencer, thinks the focus on sequels and remakes is getting old. He's even thought about canceling Disney+ because of its lack of new original shows — but has relented since he loves the Hulu content integration.

"I think they realize that counting on the nostalgia of the movies isn't enough to funnel people into Disney+," Dominic said.

Eventually, Disney must find new versions of "Moana" and "Frozen" from the 2010s, said David Lewis, a Disney-focused travel planner.

"That's what's going to build loyalty to the company with the next generation," Lewis said. "They're not going to be as tied, as drawn to the company or the experiences if all they get in childhood as great movies is 'Moana 2' and 'Frozen 4.'"

Otherwise, children like Lewis' 3-year-old daughter will be raised by YouTubers — the most famous of whom, MrBeast, is already plotting to usurp Disney.

"What is it right now that is out and new that is endearing itself to another generation of kids?" Lewis said. "There's not much from the company that's doing that."

• Demi Moore, 62, has a wellness routine that involves getting good sleep, avoiding meat, and practicing meditation.
• But the Oscar-nominated actor doesn't want to give up her favorite energy drink.
• "I mean, I'm not perfect. I still do drink Red Bull. I do love it. But not many. One," Moore said.

Demi Moore, 62, is all about getting plenty of sleep and a clean diet — but she's not quite ready to give up her one guilty pleasure.

In an interview for the cover of People's World's Most Beautiful 2025 issue, Moore spoke about her wellness routine and how it's changed over the years.

"I really like anchoring with a short meditation, journaling. And overall, I like really nutrient-dense food. I don't eat meat. I do eat eggs. But I think a big part of wellness is really inside out. And I've come to realize how important sleep is," Moore told People.

But as much as she tries to take care of what she puts into her body, there's one thing she can't go without.

"I mean, I'm not perfect. I still do drink Red Bull. I do love it. But not many. One," Moore said.

The Oscar-nominated actor says she used to go to extreme lengths to take care of her appearance. But these days, her wellness routine is centered on improving her overall health and longevity.

"I did torture myself. Crazy things like biking from Malibu all the way to Paramount, which is about 26 miles. All because I placed so much value on what my outsides looked like," Moore said.

She added that she used to have "a much more antagonistic relationship" with her body. Now, she says she tries to be gentler with herself.

"I trust when it tells me it needs something to eat, that it's thirsty. I listen to my body today, and I have a lot less fear," she said. "When I was younger, I felt like my body was betraying me. And so I just tried to control it. And now I don't operate from that place. It's a much more aligned relationship."

Although aging in Hollywood hasn't been easy, Moore says she has a "greater appreciation" for all that her body has been through.

"It doesn't mean that sometimes I look in the mirror and don't go, 'Oh God, I look old,' or 'Oh, my face is falling' — I do. But I can accept that that's where I'm at today, and I know the difference today is that it doesn't define my value or who I am," she said.

There is plenty of research that backs up Moore's eating and living habits.

A 2022 study found that people who eat less meat have a lower risk of cancer than people who eat meat often.

While eating too much meat — and specifically red meat — has been linked to health problems such as heart disease and cancer, it isn't all bad, since it contains iron, protein, and vitamin B12.

Likewise, research shows that getting quality sleep can help improve immunity and increase longevity. According to neuroscientists, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep every night to be well-rested.

A representative for Moore did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.