I can speak for my neck of the woods. Speaking about franchises being popular, TV programming and such - general urban culture is not different at all from yours:

Marvel comics have always been popular and reprinted in former Yugoslavia. Comic book community in Serbia is on first name basis with DC comic characters, Marvel characters and others.
Probably every Hollywood movie from 80's, 90's and current find their way to our theaters. Most of population have seen all there is to be seen from major movie stars. As for TV shows - Simpsons and South Park are known by virtually every urban kid or young adult as they are running for years, as well as any major sitcom or or SCI-Fi or thriller or forensic show (24, all kinds of CSIs, Walking Dead,...) . For those not syndicated on TV, there is internet . We are regularly on tour map of great bands such as Metallica, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Kiss, Iron Maiden, to name a few. Also, EVERYONE knows about David Hasselhoff, off course, we know him by his real name Mitch Buchannon LOTR and Hobbit has been printed in my native language since the 70s. We used to think of ourselves as the Land of Basketball and have our players in NBA. And we have all played Monopoly extensively in some point of our childhood.

Pinball used to be very popular here. Until several years ago there was one in many bars and coffee shops. There is a fair twice a year in my town and since I was tall enough to see over the playfield in the beginning of mid 80s I spent hours and hours watching people play Centaurs, Electras, Vectors, Mata Haris, Panteras, Flash Gordons and such.
With advent of game consoles and violent video gaming pinball is falling out of favor with new generations. They just don't get the lure of the silverball. Operators (I've talked with several) don't earn any money on them any more. Routed pinball machines that were dirt cheap three years ago are steadily increasing in price because people are exporting them to places like US where you folks pay ridiculous prices (for European standards, and specially for poor European cousin country standards) for them. You could find Indiana Jones for 450 Euro three years ago, for 850 Euro last year and now they are close to 1500 (all interned ads I've found since I got into this hobby). I see BSD in ads for around 600 Euro, TAF around 1000 Euro and Twilight Zone around 1600 Euro. It is too much for local people (average salary here is around 400 eur per month), they are shipped elsewhere and soon will all be gone.

Dobro, hvala! A vi?