Fandoms are a force to be reckoned with, whether tied to movies, music, comics, games, or anything else under the sun. The sense of community that goes hand-in-hand with it is a powerful ally. “Connecting with people over shared passions and interests is good for mental and emotional health,” according to Dr. Laurel Steinberg, a psychotherapist and professor of psychology at Columbia University.

At the end of the day, entertainment-based projects need a high number of followers to be motivated in order to be successful. Not-quite-mainstream artists could have a lot of followers across major social networks. They may aggressively push out a series of paid ad campaigns for greater visibility. Still, real power, strength, and longevity lies in having a strong community, highly engaged and involved.

Passionate Communities Unite for Change

There have been numerous instances in the recent past where fandoms exercised their power to join forces and make their voices heard. In May of 2017, the fandoms of One Direction, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Fifth Harmony, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and others joined forces to support Ariana Grande in the wake of the attack at her Manchester concert. Their unity and sense of community was seen and heard all around the world during the event itself, and even moreso across social media.

Strong and highly involved communities can also join forces to save their favorite series from cancellation, find it a new home on another network, or even raise money for a movie spin-off. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" was canceled by Fox and then picked up by NBC – all within a matter of 24 hours – because of the protests from its fandom. Passionate communities can also get pretty creative, as can be easily seen by taking a look at the fans of "Friday Night Lights", who mailed NBC light bulbs in an effort to get the show renewed. Their efforts were not in vain, as the show would end up running for an additional three seasons.

Increased Involvement Through Generosity

Motivated communities don’t hesitate to pull their wallets out. In the case of "Veronica Mars”, which was canceled after its third season, fans raised over $7,000 in a single week to have a plane fly with a banner that read "Renew Veronica Mars CW 2006". Fans later raised $2 million in less than 11 hours to fund a "Veronica Mars” film on Kickstarter, which was ultimately released in 2014.

Film3 is the new way for fanbases to have their say in decision-making processes for films being produced . It encompasses the immersive experience of filmmaking in blockchain and metaverse spaces. Mogul NFT Marketplace, the blockchain-oriented system is specifically built from the ground up with the entertainment industry in mind. Mogul through its partnerships with moviemakers, music makers, content creators, and intellectual property owners has helped establish a passionate fan-based community able to vote on the films they want to see turned into cinematic releases, through a system of quadratic voting.

Using Mogul’s Decentralized Film Financing (DeFiFi) processes, films are funded through a combination of fans voting on which movies to make by staking STARS tokens and buying NFT film memorabilia, as well as private funding and Mogul’s Film Fund. In the case of NFTs, these utility-based Non-Fungible Tokens are designed to bring fans closer to the action via different forms of experiential utility and behind-the-scenes access.

Mogul has gone the extra mile by partnering with Trace Network Labs, to amplify the community experience. The Mogul community will soon be able to mint their own NFTs and bring their avatars into a variety of Film3 experiences, such as film premieres and events in Mogieland, the upcoming Hollywood-inspired metaverse. This is in addition to offering fans better and more exclusive collectibles, including the likes of Marvel art by Rob Prior featuring Stan Lee as characters, and one-of-a-kind couture dresses that were worn by actress Julianne Moore—as NFTs.

With Film3, movie fans with fierce passion and a strong sense of community now have a level of production power comparable to that of the artists and producers themselves. The fans are voices not to be underestimated. They know what they want. As such, community engagement is something that should be taken very seriously by all creators.