Did 'Avengers' help burnish Seoul image?
American actor Chris Evans sits on a car hood as the crew of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” films in Sangam-dong in Seoul on April 4, 2014. / Yonhap
Marvel Studios gets 2.6 billion won refund of filming costs
By Jung Min-ho
The government-backed Korean Film Council (KOFIC) decided Thursday to give Marvel Studios, the producer of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” a 2.6 billion won ($2.1 million) refund — 30 percent of what it spent while shooting the film here.
This is the largest financial incentive the KOFIC has ever given to a foreign moviemaker, a KOFIC official said.
It is one of many incentives the Korean government promised to the company in exchange for filming part of the movie in its capital.
However, the generous refund has rekindled controversy as to whether the Hollywood blockbuster burnished the image of Seoul as was expected by the metropolitan government.
While the central and local governments claimed filming would boost the image of Seoul, many who watched the movie do not agree.
Expecting that the nation’s brand value would jump by 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) by participating in the film, the central and Seoul city governments provided assistance for filmmaking, including a rebate and traffic restrictions.
Yet many remain unconvinced that the real economic effect was — or ever will be — that big.
A 30-year-old office worker, surnamed Kim, remembers how disappointed he was after watching the film when it was released here in April.
“First of all, I didn’t like the movie,” he said. “But I was more disappointed in how Seoul was portrayed. There were no nice views of the city, which I expected to see. I think it would be difficult for foreigners to tell it was even filmed in Seoul.”
An independent film producer in Seoul said that expectations for its economic effect were exaggerated.
“It is nice to have such big movies filmed in Korea in the hope of attracting more foreign tourists,” he said. “But the governments shouldn’t have mentioned the ‘long-term economic effect,’ which is almost impossible to prove anyway.”
A KOFIC official said that the obvious change the organization has seen so far is more inquiries from foreign movie producers.
“They ask whether they can get incentives for shooting their films in Seoul,” the official said. “But we have no idea about how many tourists will come here because of the movie.”
One of the reasons why global movie producers shoot their movies in other countries is that, by doing so, it attracts more people who want to see their countries on screen, she noted.
So, critics say providing too many benefits for film producers may not be necessary.
More than 10 million Koreans watched the movie, which became the fourth non-Korean film to hit that milestone after “Avatar” (2009), “Frozen” (2014) and “Interstellar” (2014).