What are the most Popular Fantasy Movies?
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18 August 2011
A few minutes of research on the Google Adwords keyword tool gives you a rough idea of which fantasy movies are the most popular. There are other factors that affect these results, such as semantics and the number of movies in each franchise, but knowing the number of searches for these terms is still interesting and/or useful.
People who are working in speculative fiction industries, such as writers of fantasy, reviewers of sci fi books, publishers of comics and books, producers of films, coordinators of pop culture events and sci fi conventions, etc. need to know what people are looking for online and tailor their marketing plans to suit. The following article is not an academic essay or a scientific study - far from it - but it is an interesting discussion of the popularity of a number of fantasy movies.
Title/Series
Monthly Searches |
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Harry Potter823,000 |
The number of books and movies contributes to this result, but there's no denying Harry Potter is the most popular fantasy movie series of all time. That doesn't make it the best fantasy movie series (how do you define best?), but it certainly makes the Harry Potter franchise important to every person involved in speculative fiction industries. The age group this series primarily appeals to is also affecting the search statistics as teenagers and young adults tend to have more time to surf the web than older, working people.
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Avatar301,000 |
This term also applies to the TV series of the same name (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and to the general concept of avatars, an alter-ego or character, usually electronic in nature (eg. a your character in a video game). This statistic is probably warped because of the semantics, but it is still interesting to see Avatar up so high.
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Twilight301,000 |
The term 'twilight' is used in many other scenarios in reference to the time of day, so this statistic is not particularly reliable, but in terms of people searching, its more likely they would have the movies in mind when using the word 'twilight' in searches, so it is clear that this book/movie franchise is of utmost importance to science fiction publishers, producers and retailers.
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Lord of the Rings165,000 |
Searches to do with the books would be included in this, but other than that you can be sure there are no semantics challenges for this data. It is clear that The Lord of the Rings is very popular, including being more than twice as popular as Narnia, so far.
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Willow165,000 |
The term 'willow' is used in reference to a type of tree so we find it in place names, company names and people's names, so this search term wouldn't always be about the movie. The age of the movie may also contribute to the high number of searches. It's probably not worth bothering about Willow the movie when it comes to business decision-making.
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Pirates of the Carribean74,000 |
The Pirates of the Carribean franchise is very popular and among the rest of the fantasy movies listed, it is the most heavily steeped in earth history and mythology. It seems to have a more mainstream appeal and its comedic/action-driven story-telling make it popular among people who wouldn't identify themselves as fans of fantasy.
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Narnia60,500 |
Narnia is the generic term adopted by the movie franchise. Before that it was really only the name of the mystical country in C.S. Lewis' books, so you can be fairly sure these searches are more about the movies than the books. That may explain why the number of searches is so much lower than those for Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. There are 8,100 Australian monthly searches for 'the lion, the witch and the wardrobe' alone.
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How to Train Your Dragon33,100 |
There are no semantics problems with this title, so you can be sure there are a lot of people looking up how to train your dragon in Australia each month.
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The Princess Bride14,800 |
The popularity of the age-old classic fantasy movie is informative. People remember the movies that impacted them during their childhood and The Princess Bride is one of the earliest fantasy movies to really become popular.
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Clash of the Titans14,800 |
This movie may not have much of a cult following, but 14,800 monthly searches is nothing to sneeze at. It is clear that fantasy and mythology are very much of interest to consumers today.
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The Dark Crystal5,400 |
To see this movie still being searched for today shows that people still want to know about and remember The Dark Crystal. It is among the earliest fantasy movies ever made and it still holds interest for viewers today.
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Labrynth2,900 |
This term is used for things other than the movie, including mazes and spiritual practices, so the popularity of this fantasy movie is fairly low.
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Dragonheart1,300 |
Although not as popular as the other fantasy movies listed, Dragonheart does attract regular searches in google. To put this in perspective, the movie Jerry Maguire (also released in 1996) grossed $153,952,592 at the box office and there are 3,600 Australian monthly searches. Dragonheart grossed $104,364,680. |
* Australian Monthly Searches on Google as at 18/08/2011
# Including upcoming titles (sometimes a guess)
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