LONDON — As “Downton Abbey” moves from the television screen to movie theaters, the real-life setting of the period drama is bracing for a renewed surge of interest.

Highclere Castle, the grand English country house in Hampshire that is used as the fictional home of the Crawley family, has drawn hundreds of thousands of paying visitors since the drama made its debut on television in 2010.

The recent release of its follow-up movie is certain to extend the fascination with Julian Fellowes’s “upstairs downstairs” story of life in a stately country home, and experts say that the renewed buzz will most likely lift interest in real estate in the area, too.

The Highclere Estate, about 65 miles west of London, and the nearby lush green lanes and pretty pubs and churches have always been unbilled co-stars of the “Downton” phenomenon.