Visitors seize the chance to take a photo with Oppie and Groves near Fuller Lodge. Courtesy/LAC

BY KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

The relationship between Los Alamos and Hollywood for the film, Oppenheimer, can only be described as symbiotic. Hollywood reaped commercial and critical acclaim for its depiction of the town’s origins and arguably its most famous resident while Los Alamos successfully capitalized on the massive, worldwide attention it received.

In short, filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film has made both entities sparkle in the limelight.

The proof of Los Alamos’ successes is in the numbers. According to data provided by the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation (LACDC) through Discover Los Alamos, the community’s primary visitor attractions, including the Los Alamos Visitor Center, Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos History Museum and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MPNHP) Visitor Center, all enjoyed an increase in visitation this summer. The numbers rose beginning in March but made significant jumps in July, when the movie premiered.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:

• Los Alamos Visitor Center had 1,381 visitors in June, 1,758 visitors in July, 2,153 walk-ins in August and 2,340 in September. In 2022, the numbers were 953 in June, 1,076 in July, 990 in August and 1,296 in September. This amounted to approximately a 58 percent increase in traffic year-over-year.
• The Bradbury Science Museum had 5,451 attendees in June, 7,654 visitors in July, 7,805 people in August and 6,640 in September. Last year’s numbers were 4,216 in June, 5,498 in July, 4,365 in August and 4,350 in September. In total, the Bradbury numbers showed a 63 percent increase in year-over-year visitation.
• The Los Alamos History Museum had 2,388 visitors in June, 3,833 in July, 4,981 in August and 4,434 in September. Last year’s attendance numbers were 1,647 in June, 2,118 in July, 1,972 in August and 2,094 in September. Year-over-year, the History Museum saw a roughly 68 percent increase in visitation.
• MPNHP’s numbers were at 1,866 in June, 3,128 in July, 2,106 in August and 2,490 in September. Last year’s numbers were 893 in June, 1,121 in July, 805 in August and 1,084 in September. The MPNHP showed the most significant increase in year-over-year visitation, at approximately 103 percent.

LACDC Executive Director Lauren McDaniel said the success stories didn’t end with local attractions but extended to businesses in town.

“Many of our small businesses also saw an increase in visitation this summer,” she said.

For instance, McDaniel said the Gadgets giftshop in the Bradbury Science Museum reported retail sales increases of 60 percent.

Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op also saw significant sale increases in July and August, McDaniel said. While it is difficult to directly attribute the movie’s tourism draw to their increase in sales, since the summer months are generally the beer co-op’s busy time of year, she said, it still had more than an 18 percent increase in overall sales. Plus, from August 2022 to August 2023, the business had a 24 percent increase.

Blue Window Bistro has continued to be packed during the summer, too.

It doesn’t stop there; SALA Event Center hosted a 10-day festival to celebrate the release of the film in July. Owner Allan Saenz said the festivities included screening “Oppenheimer” three times a day, hosting lectures by the Los Alamos Historical Society, as well as allowing locals who were extras in the movie to share their experiences.

He said every screening sold out and the festival brought in attendees who were not only from out-of-town but out-of-state, too.

“It was really nice that we were able to watch (the film) in a movie theater and we were able to bring (the film) to so many people,” Saenz said.

Whether it was the local event space or a restaurant, seeing the crowds was a welcomed site, McDaniel said.

“We’ve definitely seen a lot more visitors around town and our visitor numbers support that they are visiting our local businesses,” she said.

McDaniel credited that to the community-wide, collaborative effort that created and executed the local marketing campaign, called Project Oppenheimer.

“We had so many different community members partake in this initiative, we didn’t feel it was just one entity,” McDaniel said. “The County played a role in helping bring everybody together and create that forum and that outlet, but we consistently had 35-45 community members join the monthly Project Oppenheimer meetings and then we had 10 community advocates who were responsible for different focus areas. So, we had a lot of different facets of the community involved and I think that really played a large role in everything we were able to accomplish.”

Los Alamos County Economic Development Administrator Dan Ungerleider agreed.

“The community came together … we spent a lot of time on visitor experience making sure that we were all connected and working to share the story,” Ungerleider said.

One thing he said he observed was the number of out-of-state tourists coming to the town.

“I am seeing a lot more visitation from other places,” Ungerleider said. “I think it is only going to continue to grow … this is not just a one shot.”

One of the strategies to keep people visiting the town is to give them a great experience and the LACDC’s ambassador program is a tool being used to provide good visits, McDaniel said.

Project Oppenheimer showed that there are all types of ambassadors in the community who are here to welcome visitors, she explained. Between 2022-2023, the program, which is overseen by LACDC’s Liz Martineau, has trained more than 200 individuals and an additional 40 took the online training.

“We anticipate we’ll continue to see an influx of visitation for some time, and want to ensure that all the touchpoints visitors have in our community are good ones so that they go back and tell their family and friends that they had a great time in Los Alamos, and it is worth checking out.”

Discover Los Alamos Director Melanie Peña, who manages visitor center operations for Los Alamos and White Rock as part of the LACDC, said the feedback from visitors about the beautiful drive to Los Alamos, the scenery and the friendly people have all been good.

“It has been very positive,” she said.

The County and other community organizations also used their own mass marketing to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the film.

McDaniel said the National Park Service released articles in anticipation of the film and two – written by Los Alamos resident Chris Judson – went viral, reaching 7.5 million viewers. Plus, Sunny505, the County’s marketing contractor, generated social media posts that reached more than 95,000 users and earned more than 7,800 engagements. In terms of media coverage given to Los Alamos during the release of Oppenheimer, McDaniel said Sunny505 reported that national and international news outlets generated 2,800 stories that reached 11 billion readers. Of those 2,800 stories, about 90 percent were positive, she said.

To further spur interest, the County developed and Discover Los Alamos distributed brochures for a self-guided walking tour of Oppenheimer film locations in Los Alamos, McDaniel said.

There is seemingly an unlimited number of opportunities for Los Alamos to take advantage of the film moving forward.
McDaniel said businesses created Oppenheimer-themed specials and she encourages them to continue to do this, either through themed drinks, food, gifts, souvenirs or experiences. For the LACDC’s part, plans are being developed to better incorporate Oppenheimer and the town’s history into next year’s ScienceFest along with highlighting what the laboratory is doing today.

Ungerleider said not only does the film open the door for different marketing strategies but, “It is fun to say that we are the home of Oppenheimer.”