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SAN DIEGO — Geeks, nerds, gamers, cosplayers, fanboys and fangirls – an estimated 130,000 of them – are expected to visit Comic-Con this weekend, an annual celebration of popular culture.

Fans cheerfully line up to crowd into panels featuring stars of superhero movies along with science-fiction and fantasy TV shows, as well as attending workshops on obscure subjects like “Klingon Lifestyles,” and “Law and Forensic Psychiatry in a Zombie Apocalypse.”

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The throngs at Comic-Con, which began Thursday and runs through Sunday, are merely the more visible, colorful members of a much larger community. Consumers worldwide spent about $35 billion going to movies last year and $66 billion for video games, according to independent industry research, while television advertisers spent $162 billion.

Not all of that was spent on genre fare, but 20 of the 30 highest-grossing films of all-time fall into the science-fiction, fantasy or superhero niches. And some of today’s most popular television series also take viewers into the realm of the unknown, including “Game of Thrones,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “The Walking Dead.”