The creators of “Aloha Santa,” who will start filming their Christmas movie Monday on Maui, are banking on the perennial popularity of holiday films.

Christmas movies may get watched only once a year, but they get watched every year, said one of the film’s producers, Eric Gilliom, a Maui-based musician, actor and filmmaker. Examples include the Will Ferrell comedy “Elf,” which earned more money on TV in the years after its 2003 release ($173.3 million, according to Box OfficeMojo) than it did on its opening weekend ($31.1 million) in movie theaters, and TBS’s annual Christmas Eve marathon of “A Christmas Story,” which came out in 1983.

“Most films, once they have their run, they end up on Netflix and you might watch it again and you might not,” he said. “But Christmas movies, by their very nature, people watch them over and over, year after year. Christmas movies become a tradition.”

If all goes well, Gilliom’s film will be in theaters or on TV next Christmas, he said.

“Aloha Santa,” budgeted for $3 million, will be shot entirely on Maui, although with generous special effects added later. Santa will be played by stand-up comedian and actor George Lopez, who apparently is so busy that filmmakers will have him on set only for 12 days.

His character, the adopted son of Santa, has just been given the old man’s job but gets off to a rocky start.

“He is somewhat of a lovable loser,” Gilliom said. “He has to take over the role of Santa and his first effort is to take the sleigh out for a test ride and he crashes on Maui the week before Christmas and without his magical powers.” Rife with insecurities, Santa wanders around Maui trying to convince people that he’s the real thing, only to wind up in jail.

Among the top talent on board for the “Aloha Santa” are executive producers J.C. Spink of “The Hangover” movies and Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx.

The story was conceived by Jonathan Yudis, who will also direct. Yudis is best known for directing the cult comedy “Pervert!” and his work on Walt Disney’s animated film “Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World.”

Yudis moved from Hollywood to Maui five years ago. One day, as he drove his 6-year-old son to school, the boy wondered aloud how funny it would be if Santa got stuck on Maui. Yudis worked on early drafts of the screenplay after meeting Gilliom in 2012.

“We hit it off right away, and not because we’re two bald guys,” said Gilliom, who also has a role in the film as a daffy “local yokel” named Willy, the only person who believes Santa’s story.

The 52-year-old Gilliom, who starred in the wacky film “Get a Job” in 2011, grew up on Maui and has acted on Broadway and in films. His first role was a small part in 1986 basketball classic “Hoosiers,” starring Gene Hackman. He often performs alongside Willie K as part of The Barefoot Natives and with Mick Fleetwood’s The Island Rumors Band.

Finding investors for “Aloha Santa” was not difficult, Gilliom said.

“The whole idea of shooting a Christmas movie on Maui was not a hard sell,” he said. “Literally everybody we were talking to in the industry said, ‘Maui for Christmas? I’m in.’”

The film’s producers said Lopez was a good fit after the comic’s representatives suggested him for the part.

“The character’s journey in the film is about a person who was adopted, came from nothing and has to believe in himself,” Gilliom said. “If you look into the world of George Lopez, that is his story. He came from an impoverished part of Los Angeles and was told he would never be anything. He is a self-made success story.”

Lopez was not available to comment on the project.

Using the Hawaiian word “aloha” in the title doesn’t concern Gilliom, despite the fact that the Cameron Crowe film “Aloha” created an uproar earlier this year because some people thought its use was disrespectful to native culture.

“I feel pretty confident about its use,” Gilliom said. “The context in which the word ‘aloha’ is used in this movie — and three of the central characters are Hawaiian — is that there is a parallel drawn between the aloha spirit and the Christmas spirit.”

AND that’s a wrap …