Fandoms

On Fandoms & Movies

“The term ‘fandom’ is used to refer to the collective fans of something such as a sport, hobby, or series of books. Typically, the members of a fandom feel interconnected by their common interest, and a fandom can often be a subculture as well. Only the most devoted fans are included in a fandom, separating them from people who may casually enjoy the thing in question.” – Mary McMahon and Bronwyn Harris (What is a Fandom?)

As multimedia becomes increasingly present in our society, many more platforms have been developed which allow not only single individuals to express themselves, but groups of individuals as well. When certain individuals find common interests between each other, it is much easier for them to communicate with each other, and much more likely for them to maintain contact with one another, even if semi infrequently. Fandoms are not new however; according to a Princeton article on ‘Fandom’, “a wide variety of western modern organized fannish subcultures originated with science fiction fandom.” The only difference today is that one no longer needs to wait for an organized event to “fangirl” about his or her beloved topic.
One major contributor to the prevalence of these fandoms is the encouragement of the subjects themselves. Through social media celebrities such as Nicki Minaj can name their fandoms, such as Barbz, or the Rihanna Navy respectively. Besides celebrities other fandom subjects, specifically movies, are very encouraging of their fans to express their love for the film. Two movies that have garnered a lot of coverage because of their fandoms, are the rival franchises of Harry Potter and Twilight.
Both franchises have some of the largest and most recognizable fan bases in the world. According to the website Twitter, each franchise has about one million followers, Twilight with approximately 300,000 more than Harry Potter.
Part of this is due to the longevity of each franchise. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in the seven book series, was originally published on June 26 1997, by Bloomsbury Publishing, according to CNBC.com, whereas Twilight was originally published on October 5, 2005, nearly a decade later. (StephanieMeyer.com)
In addition, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), the final Harry Potter film was released in July of 2011 while the final installment of the Twilight Saga was released in 2012, giving Harry Potter a 14 year run, whereas the Twilight Saga only had half that, with a 7 year run. This automatically gives Harry Potter a time advantage when it comes to gaining fans.
As well as the longevity of each franchise, the demographic intended for each play a large role in how the fans of each respective series will react. While Harry Potter was released in 1997, long before MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter, and was intended for young boys, about 10 of age, The Twilight Saga, with a 13 year old girl target demographic, was released just as these big social media websites were starting. So why does ‘Harry Potter’ have 65,526,040 ‘likes’ on Facebook while ‘The Twilight Saga’ only has 41,948,075? Possibly because of how the books were written.
The Harry Potter series, covers an entire seven year period of the protagonist’s life, the first book being published in 1997 and the final installment being published in July of 2007. This 10 year period allows not only for the readers to grow with the character, but for many of them, to start a family and share the book with their new families. These readers then had the ability to share Harry Potter with a new generation of children who would be present for the further advancement of the series into films.
On the other hand, The Twilight Saga only had a 3 year book run, with the final installment being released on August 2, 2008. This only allowed for those original 13 year old girls to become sixteen by the end of the book series, and only about 20 by the time the film series ended, leaving them no one but maybe younger siblings and friends to pass the franchise down onto.
These fandoms of ‘Potterheads’ and ‘TwiHards,’ Harry Potter & Twilight fans respectively, are the reason these movies, mainly, Harry Potter, have reached such success at box offices. According to boxofficemojo.com, the highest ranking Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, earned a total of $38,340,631 in its opening day, where $32 million of those dollars were in advance ticket sales. On the other hand the highest grossing Twilight movie, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, earned only $25,174,825 on its opening day.
What also fuels each fandom, is the ability for the fans to purchase goods related to the subject. Hot Topic, a popular clothing store for many subcultures, including Twilight and Harry Potter fandoms provide a plethora of items for fans to buy. Currently Hot Topic has 53 separate Harry Potter items available for purchase, ranging from stickers and wrist bands, to T-shirts and masks. Twilight furthermore, only has 6 items listed, including just two wrist bands, two lanyards, a bookmark, and a sticker. This suggest that Harry Potter would still today be more popular amongst young adults, and by extension, have a larger fandom.
What fans often don’t realize as well is that they contribute to the success of their own fandoms, not only in that they gather together and support whatever it is they have in common, but that when they purchase products or pay for movie tickets, the provide money for the franchise to become larger, allowing for more fans to join. For example, because of the enormous success of the Harry Potter franchise, a Hogwarts and Hogsmeade now exist in Universal Orlando, Florida, with more expansions to come soon in 2014. (WizardingWorldOfHarryPotter.com)
Twilight however, is not anywhere near becoming a theme park, much due to the fact that it would be quite difficult to model rides and themed areas after the characters and events within the Twilight Saga, and partially due to the fact that Stephanie Meyer, simply has not earned enough money from her books and movies to invest in such a spectacle, again all stemming from the reception of her book’s fans.
Fandom subculture has been an ever growing part of society since the early 1900’s. Back then organized groups could gather and enjoy the subject of whatever it is that they enjoyed, however if they did not live in relatively the same area, it was hard for them to enjoy their subject with the company of others.
Nowadays, social media allows the young and the old to discuss what they want, when they want, which allows for anything from celebrities, to movie franchises, to books, to become huge mainstream successes. Although these fandoms may not impact our day to day lives individually, the power of thousands of fans can significantly affect what we as a whole society view as success.

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