Decades after appearing on the big screen, the movie Popeye is still generating millions of euros worth of free online advertising for Malta.
Research just released in London shows that, annually, the film Notting Hill generates the equivalent of €24.9 million in online advertising for London while the 1980 musical shot at Anchor Bay, not far from Mellieħa, still yields an estimated €12.2 million.
The research looked into links between tourism and films and was commissioned by EuroScreen, an EU-funded consortium of film commissions, development agencies, local government and higher education institutions.
Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit said the study showed Malta was not capitalising on the impact of films.A spokesman for local partner Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit said the study showed Malta was not capitalising on the impact of films.
“An interesting finding is that on Game of Thrones. People discovered that the first season was filmed in Malta only after visiting the actual locations… essentially visitors did not know what was shot in Malta and where,” he said.
He wondered how the island would make the best out of the Brangelina movie By the Sea, which was filmed at Mġarr Ix-Xini this summer.
Malta was one of four European locations analysed in the research into social media buzz created by productions, which analysed about 35 million comments and interactions across sites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Pinterest.
Apart from selling cinema tickets, productions got people talking about the destinations they featured and this directly translated into visitors, known as “screen tourism”, said Adrian Wooton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film commission.
Social media intelligence agency Human Digital worked with academic partners including the London School of Economics and Political Science and Oxford University’s Internet Institute for the study.
Its findings provided an insight into people’s behaviour based on a rigorous analysis of what, when, how and why they post, comment and share information online.
The analysis found a correlation between place and screen, with the ‘chatter’ (likes, mentions, retweets) equivalent to paid-for advertising running into millions of euros.
Human Digital analysed three productions for Malta. Popeye topped the list with the equivalent of €12.2 million of free exposure in advertising terms. This was followed by Game of Thrones, released in 2011 and generating €1.3 million, and Gladiator, with €1.1 million.
The research also analysed productions from Italy, Sweden and the UK, including Harry Potter that generated €13.3 million and the series Sherlock that yielded €13.7 million for London.
Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit will be holding an event about the study on November 28 at 9.30am at Europa House, Valletta. Register by e-mailing at euroscreen@live.com.