What makes science fiction films so successful?

A long time ago science fiction was considered as a minor genre, but a recent survey has shown that nowadays this is one of the most popular film-lovers’ likes all over the world. Greatest advances in latest decades could be the reason and explanation for a significant increase in movies that tell us stories that although completely impossible today, perhaps might exist or happen in the future, as we are being witness to a flourishing technological revolution.

The genre ‘Science Fiction’ embraces quite a few terms: utopia, hope, fear of the future, fantasy, social denunciation, political indoctrination or just adventure. But to answer the question of what makes general public get hooked to science fiction movies in recent days, we need to focus on those things that are shown in films and are totally implausible in reality, like highly developed tools or artifacts, biological engineering, aliens and explorations that can go further than any known scientific principles can allow.

Finally, I personally consider, since the majority of people do not have economic possibilities to skip from routine, cinema is a pastime everybody can afford. In other words, fiction is a way to relax and give up thinking about problems of daily life.

Given these facts, do these successful films mean that the best science fiction movie can supply the best science fiction book? I personally believe that they can’t, but perhaps a good scene is worth more than a thousand of words.