The business of D-Day: Cashing in on Operation Overlord

On Tuesday, 6 June 1944 the largest seaborne invasion in history was launched, coming to be known popularly as D-Day.

The Normandy landings, and accompanying airborne operations, set the stage for the liberation of France, with Operation Overlord laying the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. It was one of the key events of World War II.

A total of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops preceded more than 160,000 troops crossing the English Channel on D-Day. Allied casualties topped 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.

In the 80 years since the historic D-Day landings, Operation Overlord has become a global money-maker, reaping returns in billions of dollars from remembrance tourism and merchandise, to films and video games.

Operation Overlord has featured in dozens of films, perhaps the most notable being The Longest Day, which took US$50m worldwide at the box office, and Saving Private Ryan, which brought in US$482.3m.

Call of Duty: WWII, the 2017 first-person shooter game for PlayStation, Windows and Xbox, earned more than US$500m within its first three days of release. On December 20, 2017, it was announced that the game had generated more than $1bn in worldwide revenue.

In this lecture to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Owen Ryles uncovers the transformation from the battlefield to the business of D-Day, how cashing in on Operation Overlord became a multi-billion dollar industry.

Owen Ryles, who has a Master’s in Business Administration and a degree in Modern History and International Relations, is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and chief executive of the Plymouth Athenaeum.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Plymouth Athenaeum, Derrys Cross, Plymouth, United Kingdom