A ban on TikTok would be a “gut punch” to Hollywood’s ability to promote its movies and TV shows, especially to young Americans who spend countless hours on the Chinese social media app, according to a new report.
Hollywood studios are increasingly relying on TikTok as a marketing vehicle to reach young viewers, with even specialty distributors relying more and more on the CCP-controlled platform, Variety reported.
Neon — the distributor of the Oscar-winning movies Anatomy of Fall and Parasite — has “shifted a lot of our investment and our advertising dollars” to TikTok, Christian Parkes, the studio’s chief marketing officer, told the trade publication. “We’ve been able to manufacture followings far quicker there than on other platforms. TikTok is ground zero right now.”
Warner Bros. reportedly relied heavily on TikTok to promote last year’s Barbie.
“We did promotional work with [TikTok], but a tremendous amount is organic,” Warner Bros. president of global marketing Josh Goldstine told Variety. “In a really exciting way, this whole ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon created a series of conversations and engagements.”
Banning TikTok would be a “gut punch” to Hollywood, according to one industry analyst.
The “engagement and awareness for movies and celebrities is unmatched on TikTok,” Wedbush Securities tech analyst Daniel Ives told Variety.
“Overall, a ban on TikTok “would be removing the hearts and lungs of social engagement across Hollywood and would be a gut punch in our view.”
The U.S. Senate is set to vote on the TikTok ban in the weeks ahead after the House passed the ban by a vote of 365 t0 352.
The bipartisan bill is seeking to force China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok within six months or face a ban from the United States.
Peter Schweizer’s new book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans delves into TikTok’s role as a piece of spyware for the Chinese Communist Party.
Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute and a senior contributor to Breitbart News.
He recently said the CCP would oppose a sale of TikTok because “they don’t want to give up the control and the access to our kids.”
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