One Of The Most Famous Subcultures

The Star Wars Fan subculture is a very unique and diverse one. Since the Star Wars saga has been such a large part of the entire world’s pop culture, it has become one of the most well-known subcultures around. This subculture could be defined as one of great passion and unique love for movies that are very rarely seen. Only a handful of movies and pop-culture entities have sustained a large subculture population like Star Wars since the late 1970s.

I believe the people who identify with this culture are a very passionate bunch who care very much about all Star Wars content released by Disney and Lucasfilm.

Identifying with this subculture comes with the “nerdy” stereotype in most cases, when in reality, that is hardly the case. The “nerd” stereotype comes with this subculture along with a very “movie-criticizing” aura as well. Since these fans are so passionate, when a movie is released that doesn’t please them, they get very upset.

They devote a lot of time and money to this subculture and with Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, the recent movies that have been released have been somewhat disappointing to the massive audience it brings in. This can be inferred by the box office final standing of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. It only brought in $343.3 million, which is very little for a Star Wars film (boxofficemojo.com). Now, future spin-off Star Wars movies are being put on hold because of this, which in turn has caused the large following of fans to be turned away.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: Star Wars

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The previous spin-off film, “Rogue One” pulled in $1.06 billion total and left fans more than satisfied.

I believe my classmates will be familiar, some more than others, with the topic. Everyone has seen how passionate Star Wars fans are and I’m sure there are even a few within this class. We all grew up with the prequel trilogy at a young age, which should have introduced us all to the large following. Now, in our late teenage-early twenties, the sequel trilogy is about to release its last installment. I have always been a huge fan of Star Wars, but never really included myself within the subculture of passionate die-hard fans. I enjoyed the movies, but I could never get into the books, comics, or celebrations that came with them. As I said before, my generation grew up with some of these movies, so I have always been exposed to them and the fanbase.

Of the people who consider themselves a part of this subculture, I have only met a handful. They all are very knowledgeable about the whole franchise- books, comics, TV shows, and movies. I have a few friends I believe to be a part of this fan base subculture. I believe my research will lead me to respect their knowledge on the subject much more. I don’t have any huge biases towards this subculture- I am a fan, but not as big of a fan as some of the people I have met at these movies, so I am interested to see how nerdy they really are for Star Wars. I would like to learn more about some of the events that surround this subculture: Star Wars Celebration, movie theatre campouts, DragonCon, and other events. I think I will offer a unique and fresh perspective on this topic because of the experiences I have had with the subject. As I was looking at the billions of dollars these movies bring in through the box office, I realized I don’t know how much money they put into making these movies and how much profit they are bringing in. Looking at the business side and the making of these high-budget movies is what interests me about this research.

Research Questions

1. Do Disney/Lucasfilm executives because they too are passionate and a part of this subculture?
2. Why has this subculture lasted since the ’70s?
3. How much longer can this subculture survive?

Works Cited

1. Taylor, Chris. How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. Head of Zeus, 2016.
2. Reagin, Nancy Ruth, and Janice Liedl. Star Wars and History. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
3. Brevet, Brad. Box Office Mojo, 15 Dec. 2013, www.boxofficemojo.com/.
4. “The Official Star Wars Website.” StarWars.com, www.starwars.com/.
5. BETTIS, PAMELA, and BRANDON STERNOD. “Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars and the Trouble with Boys.” Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 21–38. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3149/thy.0301.21.
6. Hassler-Forest, Dan, and Sean A. Guynes. Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling. Amsterdam University Press, 2017. EBSCOhost lives. lib.Georgia Southern. Edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1701493.