How the world became hooked on fantasy

IF you’re not a big fan of fantasy and despair at all the wizards and dragons on TV, on film and in books, then you should blame John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Or, go back 1,000 years and blame the unknown author of Beowulf, with its monsters and kings. Or, go back another two millennia and blame Homer’s epic tales of gods and heroes.

Or, you could blame the recession. After all, the fantasy genre offers a perfect way for people to escape reality, with all of its financial doom and gloom. Publishing houses and movie studios have ramped up their fantasy output since the depression began five years ago. For instance, audiences have flocked to the book stores and the cinema houses in record numbers.

In 2011, we snapped up 17.4m cinema tickets, ranking us 29th in the world. And what type of films are the biggest draw? Of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, only three — Titanic, Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises — are set in the real world; two others are pure fantasy — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; and two more are superhero flicks – The Avengers and Iron Man 3 — which is just a sub-genre of fantasy anyway. Seven of the top 10 films were released since the world economy went bust in 2008.