£½m film spin-off for Rosslyn Chapel
Rosslyn Chapel, the iconic 560-year-old centrepiece of the blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code, made a profit of more than £500,000 last year.
Latest accounts lodged with Companies House for the Rosslyn Chapel Trust Ltd reveal the beneficial effect publicity from the film generated for the chapel which is desperately in need of restoration.
The previous year, the charitable trust, formed 11 years ago, made just over £300,000.
Donations from third parties leapt noticeably from £9,000 in 2005 to £56,000 last year.
Meanwhile, the chapel, in Midlothian, saw visitors increase fivefold to more than 170,000 in 2006. Visits previously averaged 30,000 a year. The admission charge is £7 per visitor.
Colin Glynne-Percy, the trust’s new director who took up his post on Monday, has indicated that profits will be reinvested in the £12m ongoing restoration programme including an extension to the existing visitor centre which is expected to open in 2008.
Mr Glynne-Percy, formerly development manager for the Edinburgh Park business development, has acknowledged improving the experience for visitors is vital to ensure income is safeguarded as interest in the chapel, generated by the film, may begin to wane.
The financial benefits of the film have also been experienced further afield.
It is estimated Scotland enjoyed £6 million worth of global publicity thanks to a unique deal between VisitScotland and Sony to promote the locations used in the production, based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel.
Shân Ross
The Scotsman
18th January 2007
The figures above are interesting. In 2006 107,000 visitors paid £7.00 each to enter Rosslyn Chapel. That is a total of £1,190,000 (one million, one hundred and ninety thousand pounds). Add donations of £56,000 the total is £1,246,000).
The article makes no mention of the money received from the Holywood company that filmed part of The Da Vinci Code in Rosslyn Chapel. Neither does it mention the sums received from the the company which filmed part of The Real Da Vinci Code starring Tony Robinson (of Time Team fame.)
The figures and profit for Rosslyn Chapel in 2007 will be even more interesting.
More to follow…