Since 2002, 48 of the 50 biggest box-office worldwide openings of any movies have been fantasy films. Hollywood blockbusters based on comic book characters (Marvel Avengers or DC Justice League), fantasy novels (like Harry Potter or Twilight), screenplay adaptations (like Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean), or fantasy cartoons (like Beauty and the Beast) have grossed more money by far on opening weekends than any other genre (WeekendRecords 2021). All in all, these movies have grossed over US$20 billion. Of course, the numbers are skewed by Western and Anglophone countries where people have higher disposable incomes and films are screened in cinemas, but the popularity extends worldwide, including out of the box office. In the same period, only one fantasy movie won the Academy Award for best picture, and only four have even been nominated out of 141 (Oscar Awards Databases). Why do people queue up for such movies that are hardly realistic and rarely critically acclaimed? Why do some fictional characters and their stories strangely arrest our mind and affect us so deeply? The sheer extent of this phenomenon begs for an explanation.

In this book, we propose that such movies speak to—and build upon—a way of imagining the world that is common to humans and that compensates for certain gaps in modern life or amplifies dominant perceptions. We see such movies as examples of modern myths in popular culture that fulfill a similar role to the one played by myths enacted in earlier times. The ancients told legends and acted out plays and rituals while we watch movies and read novels. J. R. R. Tolkien, whose Lord of the Rings influenced generations of readers, filmmakers, and now a gaming culture, strived consciously for mythopoeia, myth-making ( J. R. R. Tolkien, Humphrey, and C. Tolkien 2000; Tarnas 2019). “Successful films, like successful myths […] stir us to renewed action, emotion and thought” (Plate 2003, 7–8). Indeed, films and fiction are not the only examples. Myths are fundamentally symbolic, and from that symbolic perspective much of modern culture can be seen as myth-making. This includes, for instance, contemporary religious expressions and political drama or even the history that, in the words of anthropologist Victor Turner, “repeats the deep myths of culture” (Turner 1974, 122).