Certain mainstream icons can become cult icons in a different context for certain people. The film Woodstock (1970) is especially loved within the hippie subculture, while Hocus Pocus (1993) holds cult status among American women born in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some cults are only popular within a certain subculture. In many cases, films that have cult followings may have been financial flops during their theatrical box office run, and even received mixed or mostly negative reviews by mainstream media, but are still considered a major success by small core groups or communities of fans. Professors Xavier Mendik and Ernest Mathijs, authors of 100 Cult Films, argue that the devoted following among these films make them cult classics. Works such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The X-Files, Back to the Future, Scream, The Notebook, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rocky Horror, Apartment Zero, The Dark Side of the Heart, XXY, Fight Club, Showgirls, That's My Boy, and/or Mean Girls attract mass audiences but also have core groups of fanatical followers. There is not always a clear difference between cult and mainstream media. Fans may become involved in a subculture of fandom, either via conventions, online communities or through activities such as writing series-related fiction, costume creation, replica prop and model building, or creating their own audio or video productions from the formats and characters. Sometimes, these cult followings cross the border to camp followings. Many cult fans express their devotion with a level of irony when describing entertainment that falls under this realm, in that something is so bad, it's good. Cult media are often associated with underground culture, and are considered too eccentric or subversive to be appreciated by the general public or to be commercially successful. Cult followings are also commonly associated with niche markets. A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment the fans have to the object of the cult following, often identifying themselves and other fans as members of a community. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small, but very passionate fanbase. ( February 2016)Ī cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a piece of artwork in various media, often referred to as a cult classic. WikiProject Popular Culture may be able to help recruit an expert. The specific problem is: the article's subject is vague, ill-defined, and appears to rely entirely on hearsay. This article needs attention from an expert in Popular Culture.