‘Time Lapse: Crowds of Tourists at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’
courtesy of ‘brownpau’
The Post has an interesting article today covering something I had been wondering about. How will “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” actually benefit our beloved Smithsonian? In several different ways, it turns out.
The first “Night at the Museum” turned into a 20% increase in attendance for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and that movie only used exterior shots of that museum. So the Smithsonian has a bump in attendance to look forward to, and it has already been paid licensing fees for the use of its name not only in the movie, but on the merchandising tie-ins to promote it. There were location fees for the four days of local filming, it gets a cut of movie-related merchandise sales in museum stores, and if the movie does well and hits certain box-office targets, there will be additional payments to the Smithsonian.
The first movie, while not exactly Oscar-grade material, was a fun romp that I caught on cable. So I’ll go see this one in theaters- maybe even at the Smithsonian’s IMAX- and enjoy picking apart the geographic accuracy of the movie. But affectionately, this time.
Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar.
Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC.
