The Town of Seaside, Florida, received tremendous visibility

The Town of Seaside, Florida, received tremendous visibility through The Truman Show, a Paramount movie directed by Peter Weir and starring Jim Carrey. Filmed in 1997 on location at Seaside, the movie opened to great reviews at the end of May, 1998, and became an instant hit, earning $65 million in two weeks. In many movies, sets are used to portray real towns. In The Truman Show, the real town is used to portray an elaborate television set called Seahaven Island. Seaside benefited from The Truman Show in two ways. Developer Robert Davis received a $400,000 location fee, which was used to construct the Seaside Neighborhood School, a charter school. As a bonus, the town has garnered tremendous publicity, most of it positive, in the New Yorker, USA Today, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and on Entertainment Tonight, local radio stations and other television shows. Developer Robert Davis and some town merchants appear in cameo roles.