Ouarzazate Cinema: The Complete Film Production History, the Studio Tour, the Game of Thrones Locations, the Moroccan Film Industry Economy, and the Cinema Tourism
The Ouarzazate cinema route covers the complete film production history of the region, the Atlas Corporation Studios tour, the Game of Thrones locations at Ait Benhaddou, the Moroccan film industry economic impact, and the cinema tourism that makes Ouarzazate the most film-obsessed single Moroccan city.
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Ouarzazate Film History: The 1962 Origin
The Ouarzazate film industry origin traces to David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), the most artistically ambitious single film production to use the Moroccan location at the time and the production that established the most critical single precedent for the Hollywood use of Morocco as a Middle Eastern substitute. The Lean production at Ait Benhaddou and the Draa Valley introduced the Moroccan landscape to the international film industry and created the awareness of the most economically competitive single North African film production environment that has drawn 100+ major international productions in the 60 years since.
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Atlas Corporation Studios: The Production Infrastructure
The Atlas Corporation Studios (6 kilometers from Ouarzazate city center) permanent production infrastructure includes the Roman city street set (the most complete single standing Roman city film set outside Rome's Cinecitta), the Egyptian temple set (the most heavily used single ancient Egypt film set in Africa), the Tibetan monastery set (built for Kundun, 1997), and the 6 fully equipped sound stages (the most modern single film production facility in Africa south of the Mediterranean). The Studios employ 10,000 Moroccan crew members and production support staff in the most single-location film production employment concentration in Africa.
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Game of Thrones Ouarzazate: Slavers Bay
The Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011-2019) filming at Ait Benhaddou (seasons 3 and 4, as the city of Yunkai in Slavers Bay) and the Atlas Corporation Studios (the Pentos and the Essos interior scenes) generated the most commercially significant single television-location tourism impact in Moroccan film tourism history. The Game of Thrones Ouarzazate tourism boom (2013-2015) is the most directly traceable single television-induced tourism surge in Morocco and the event that established the GOT location tourism as the most important single new tourism marketing category in Moroccan tourism promotion.
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Moroccan Film Industry Economy: The 350 Million USD Sector
The Moroccan film industry, centered on Ouarzazate and Casablanca, generates 350 million USD annually (the most recent available figure) in direct production spending, the largest single film production economy in Africa and the most competitive single non-English-language film production market in the world for the period costume drama and the desert-environment film. The Moroccan Centre Cinematographique Marocain (CCM) subsidy system, the most comprehensive single African film production incentive program, and the competitive exchange rate make Morocco the most cost-effective single 4-season film production location in the Old World.
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Gladiator and Babylon: The Epic Production Legacy
Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) filming at Ait Benhaddou (as the Zucchabar slave market where Maximus first fights as a gladiator), the production that introduced the most globally distributed single Ait Benhaddou film image in cinema history, is the most commercially successful single Ouarzazate-filmed production. Babylon Berlin, Asterix at the Olympic Games, Babel, Hidalgo, and The Mummy Returns are among the productions that have used the Ouarzazate infrastructure to represent the most diverse single range of historical settings from ancient Persia to pre-WW2 Germany.
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Cinema Tourism: The Location Scout Experience
The Ouarzazate cinema tourism experience - the Ait Benhaddou location visit with the film history context, the Atlas Corporation Studios tour with the standing film sets, the Kasbah Taourirt restoration, and the optional location guide (the former film crew members offering the most insider single cinematic location knowledge in Morocco) - is the most coherently themed single Moroccan tourism narrative because every element of the Ouarzazate visit connects to the film production history. The cinema tourism narrative is the most effective single way to understand the Ouarzazate character because it explains why this small pre-Saharan city has the most sophisticated single tourism infrastructure in southern Morocco.