Industry Generated over £20m for Glasgow
February 1st, 2012WORLD WAR Z PLAYED LEAD ROLE AS FILM AND BROADCAST INDUSTRY GENERATED OVER £20MILLION FOR GLASGOW’S ECONOMY IN 2011
Film, broadcast and advertising productions brought £20.15million to Glasgow’s economy in 2011, according to figures compiled by Glasgow City Council’s Glasgow Film Office.
The biggest contributor to this figure was the major film production, World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, which brought £3.33million to the city’s economy when on location for 17 days in Glasgow last summer.
Filming involved around 1200 cast and crew when World War Z was in the city and the various costs included hotel stays (8,500 bednights), local extras and location costs, which included the transformation of Glasgow city centre into Philadelphia.
Other productions which had a notable economic impact on Glasgow during 2011 included Cloud Atlas, starring Halle Berry, Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson and the television production, Young James. Together they generated almost £5.5million.
A further £2.2million was spent by low impact productions - the one or two day shoots which make up most of the productions that Glasgow Film Office deals with.
Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Alongside the great deal of excitement and enjoyment that films such as World War Z and Cloud Atlas brought was a tremendous economic boost for the city. The hard work of Glasgow Film Office and all the other council staff involved with the productions that come to our city has most certainly paid off, with over £20million coming into our economy. Such a figure underlines the financial importance of attracting film, broadcast and advertising productions to Glasgow.”