2a person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society:
the series has become a bit of a cult in the UK
[as modifier]:
a cult film
‘cult’ and ‘mainstream’ are not mutually exclusive, rendering ‘big cult’ not an oxymoron.
It is a common misconception that those that accumulate a cult following have to be marginally small compared to what is ‘mainstream’
Look at it this way, a ‘cult movie’ IE ‘fight club’ is going to be way less popular compared to a big movie like ‘titanic’. Titanic, to gross so much money has to appeal to a wide and varied audience. Using a historical event appeases those who like history and cuts corners when thinking up a story. It is rated PG to suit families, a generic love story to suit most female audiences and enough explosions to suit the male audience. Nothing is to complicated and everyone gets what is happening.
Where as ‘fight club’ which usually tops the lists of ‘top cult movie’ – appeals to a smaller audience, but an audience of which is quite passionate about it. The love story (if you call it that) is far from generic, the plot is complicated and it has many hidden metaphors and philosophical meanings fanatics thrive on pulling out.
The same with everything. That which has to be well thought out and produced with care, cannot be produced with a big budget and en masse. – music, movies, books, parties, you can always tell what has been ‘built with love’
Therefor ‘big cult followings’ are usually about lesser popular productions.
