10 MOST DEVOTED FANS BASES: 6

Lord of the Rings ― 6




POPULARITY: Saga considered the third best-selling novel ever written (J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is fourth), with more than 150 million copies sold; films grossed more than $2.91 billion worldwide and garnered 30 Academy Award nominations, winning seventeen, including Return of the King’s Best Picture win.

FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS: 10.4 million

TWITTER FOLLOWERS: N/A, but this random J.R.R. Tolkien Twitter has 32,700 followers

FAN NICKNAME: For fans of the books: Tolkienites or Tolkiendils. Movie fans: Ringers.

MAIN HANGOUTS: TheOneRing.net is the main fan site. The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza is the main location for LOTR role-playing games and forums. The e-mail list Tolklang, active since 1990, focuses on the books’ languages, while two active newsgroups also from the early nineties, alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkien, continue.

AVERAGE DEMOGRAPHIC: Fantasy aficionados introduced to the books at a young age and who have followed its family tree down as they have grown up, touching on role-playing games (both dice- and CPU-based), or similar sprawling literary series (perhaps Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, or, of course, Game of Thrones).

DEVOTIONAL PROFILE: With the original novels released in 1955, Lord of the Rings had a dedicated fan base decades before Peter Jackson ever said “action” on the movies. The LOTR fan was not and is not a passive one; they're scholars, studying and eventually teaching college courses about the books. Then the movies came out in the early 2000s and the fan base grew exponentially. Some went back and read the books, some didn’t, but they were equally obsessive. It was at this time that the fans split into factions: new fans, old fans who liked the movies, and the Purists or the Old Guard who disliked Peter Jackson's work. As a result, a big part of being a fan nowadays is participating in the debates over decisions the filmmakers made about ambiguous parts of the books, like: "Do Balrogs have wings?" That being said, though the Old Guard prefers new fans read the books, deferential new fans are given respect within the community and play LOTR-themed role-playing games along with the Purists. The movies also led to a surge in LOTRvacationing from new and old fans alike. Since the first film's release, millions of fans have made the very expensive flight to New Zealand just to see where the films were shot. After shooting The Hobbit, Jackson helped make the Hobbiton set a permanent attraction, which will likely only increase visits.

Fans followed Jackson's filming of The Hobbit as carefully as they did the previous three films, with the director again working with TheOneRing.net to supply fans tidbits and updates, and acolytes are beside themselves with anticipation for the first movie, An Unexpected Journey, which opens on December 14. However, though Jackson is a hero to the community for his allegiance to Tolkien's epic source work in the last three films, there is some trepidation amongst the flock about his decision to turn what is a 310-page children's book into three films. But just as the Star Wars prequels did not have grown Jedi fans disavowing Empire Strikes Back, if the Hobbit trilogy proves disappointing, it won't taint the Tolkeinites' devotion to the books or earlier LOTR movies. For many of them, LOTR was their definitive entry point into a world of fantasy that they have been mesmerized with ever since: They play role-playing games and read/watch other fantasy because it shares a vocabulary that LOTR pioneered. Tolkien's work is elevated in their mind above all else because it was their first love. And when they find the soul mate who shares their first love, they can both drop more than $4,000 on two One Rings to seal the deal.

From Vulture