14 Mexican and Mexican-American advisors were consulted to ensure an authentic representation of the Día de Muertos and Mexico in Coco.

13 The film producers of Coco did not receive any financial incentives from Mexico as those of Spectre got, but Coco is inspired by several Mexican customs and locations and conveys a positive image of Mexico.

12 Nevertheless, the city’s tourist officials then decided to organise a similar real-life parade in Mexico City to promote tourism during the Día de Muertos festivities. 11 The Día de Muertos parade featured at the beginning of Spectre in Mexico City was therefore designed to fulfil some of those demands as it was not occurring at the time of filming and was staged just for the film. T o ensure that Mexico would be portrayed in a particularly positive light in Spectre, private tourism companies and the Mexican government awarded incentives of $20 million to the film’s producers, 10 along with special treatment later revealed in leaked e-mails. 9 Films such as Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015), The Counselor (Ridley Scott, 2013), and Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) have contributed to this negative image in the ways that they highlighted the violence and danger of Mexican drug cartels. This negative image has especially been linked to the rising murder rate related to the operations of drug cartels in recent years. 14 Elbert Wyche, “Pixar’s Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina on making ‘Coco’ feel authentic,” Screen Daily (.)Ĥ The colourful Día de Muertos festivities can positively counteract the common perception of Mexico as a corrupt and dangerous country.13 Only in 2020 could the parade not take place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.12 An image of the parade in Spectre can be found here: (.).11 There was a hacker attack on Sony Pictures in December 2014 and afterwards internal information wer (.).10 Brian Bardwell, “James Bond Producers Offer New Clues On Mexican Incentive,” State Tax News and Ana (.).9 BBC editorial team, “How dangerous is Mexico?”, February 18, 2020.7 In 2019, for example, 7.5 million tourists travelled to Mexico for the special celebrations- not just from the nearby U.S.A. 6 The country’s Día de Muertos holiday, which takes place from the end of October to the beginning of November each year, is a very attractive period for tourists, especially since the Mexican government has been actively promoting it to foreign visitors since the 1970s. 5 In 2018, Mexico was the seventh-highest ranked tourism market in the world, and the country had registered 41.3 million international visits while its tourism revenue represented 8.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP). From 2016 until the outbreak of the pandemic, tourist arrivals were increasing by around 10% per year. 8 Mexicanist editorial team, “Coco Route: the new tourist route in Mexico that emerged thanks to Disn (.)ģ Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in early 2020, tourism was a growth sector in Mexico which had become a leading tourism destination in Latin America.7 Marchi, Day of the Dead in the USA, 126-127.6 Editorial team, “Mexico,” OECD Tourism Statistics (Database), OECD iLibrary, (.).5 Nanno Mulder (coord.), “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism sector in Latin America (.).4 As explained in the following case study, both films were conducive to the development of a greater interest in Mexico and to creating a positive image of the country in recent years, and the present article will therefore discuss how these films benefitted tourism, while also hiding security warnings.

Another successful example is the animation film Coco produced by Disney-Pixar (Lee Unkrich, 2017) in which the holiday is central to the entire plot. Its opening scenes are located in Mexico City during the Día de Muertos festivities. One of the most notable examples, with a large international reach, is the James Bond film Spectre that was directed by Sam Mendes and premiered in 2015. In recent years, the Día de Muertos has been the subject of several films. 3 In 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Día de Muertos an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. In the 20 th century, the Día de Muertos was promoted as a symbol of mexicanidad, i.e., of Mexican national identity. 4 Because of their relevance, Coco and Spectre are also thematised next to ¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei (.)Ģ Because of its peculiarity, the Día de Muertos is very characteristic of Mexico.3 The origin of the Día de Muertos as an expression of mexicanidad dates back to the post-revolutiona (.).

Spectre film locations