The budgets invested in Morocco by international productions totaled one billion MAD in 2022 and should grow in 2023, wrote French daily Le Monde.
Morocco’s Minister of Culture Mehdi Bensaid smiled for the camera on the set of Ridley Scott’s movie Gladiator 2 in Ouarzazate on June 14. He was surrounded by extras wearing Roman armor, helmets, and shields.
The photo was accompanied by a comment on Instagram of the minister saying that the incident will not affect the international cinematographic destination that is Ouarzazate. He was referring to a blast that took place recently at the movie set and injured 6 crew members.
According to Le Monde, Gladiator 2 has a budget of 200 million dollars (184 million euros), making it the most expensive feature film produced by a foreign country in Morocco in 2023.
The second part of the film–the original of which claimed five Oscars back in 2000–designated the second part of the shooting for Ouarzazate, and should generate some 300 million MAD of income (27.6 million euros). That is to say, a third of a billion dirhams (92 million euros) of receipts in 2022 by cinematographic works and foreign audiovisual media should be generated, according to the Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM).
The budgets spent in Morocco by foreign productions have decreased by almost half, from 800 million MAD (73.5 million euros) in 2019 to 440 million (40.4 million euros) in 2021, because of the constraints of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Secretary General of the CCM Khalid Saidi said that revenues increased by 130% in 2022 and are expected to be doubled and reach 2 billion MAD (184 million euros) in 2023.
The increase in the “cash rebate” (reimbursement) determined in March 2022, however, has produced its effects. The system now offers international producers the possibility of a 30% reimbursement of expenses incurred in Morocco–compared to 20% from 2018 to 2022–on the condition that they spend at least ten million dirhams (920,000 euros) (excluding taxes) on-site and shoot for a minimum of 18 days.
Shooting for Desert Warrior and Kandahar eventually took place in Neom, Tabouk, and Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia–rather than Morocco–as had been originally planned for 2022.