Kate Winslet worth £60m to UK economy?!

Interesting article - from the Film Guardian, where else! - on a UKFC report which has calculated KW's value to the UK economy in terms of film investment and tourism, plus her own salaries. Came as a titanic shock to me...

She has been appraised and audited and metaphorically slapped with a price tag. It's official: Kate Winslet, the Oscar-winning star of The Reader, is worth a grand total of £60m to the British economy.

Winslet, 34, is the first actor to be audited in a bold new venture by the UK Film Council, designed to calculate the exact value of the industry's stars. Jokingly referred to as the "Winslet algorithm", it bases its findings on a number of factors, from Winslet's basic salary through to the "general promotional effect" that her films have on British tourism.

The formula calculated that the actor had earned £20m from her acting roles since starring in Sense and Sensibility back in 1995. However, it also credits her stardom as a key factor in boosting UK-based film production. According to the study, the "production investment effect" of casting Winslet in a British picture is worth £34.4m.

The Winslet algorithm is the brainchild of David Steele, head of research and statistics at the UK Film Council. "When an actor achieves international prominence, they have a general effect of boosting their country of origin that works its way through television appearances, advertising and celebrity news," he explained in a statement. Steele now plans to use his formula to audit a number of other notable British actors.

Reading-born Winslet first came to public notice thanks to roles in Sense and Sensibility and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, before starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the record-breaking Titanic. Other notable films include Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Revolutionary Road. Steele calculates that her single biggest acting payment was the estimated £6m she pocketed for her work on the 2004 drama Finding Neverland.

 Source: Xan Brooks, "Kate Winslet 'worth £60m' to UK economy", Film Guardian [online], 9.11.09. Accessed online 10.11.09 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/09/kate-winslet-british-economy.