Why was society more dismissive of the sci fi genre during the 2000s and early 2010s?

[James35]

It seemed like that during the early 2010s people either saw the sci fi genre as something that only kids or people who lived in basements enjoyed.

People used to think that about fantasy during the 80s and 90s but the massive success of movies like Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, and Game of Thrones seemed to have gotten rid of the snobbishness towards the fantasy genre by the 2010s.

However the sci fi genre has made a little progress but isn't nearly as respected as the fantasy genre.

I'm hoping the new Dune movies do for sci fi what LOTR, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones did for fantasy.

Was America's dismissive attitudes toward the sci fi genre during the 2000s caused by the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies and the bad Star Wars sequel trilogy as well as something apparently called the "Syfy Channel"?

Perhaps we should have gotten a sci fi movie series like Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies instead of the J.J. Abrams "NuTrek".

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Well, I think sci-fi's reputation was always pretty bad among casual viewers. I'm not exactly sure why, but one guess might be that all the "normal" people looked down on the "geeks" who were into sci-fi. They didn't want to have the stigma attached to people like Trekkies. That was probably the attitude of Hollywood producers, too, who didn't want to invest money in sci-fi, and therefore most sci-fi had relatively low bugets. But really, all it takes is for one project with good writing, good acting, star power, and high production value to get people to realize sitting in the theater to watch sci-fi isn't going to turn you socially awkward.

Social pressure is a weird thing.

 

[Moe]

I thought 1980s and 1990s was sad, especially Alien Nation TV series got cancelled and they had a lot of potential, also it was one of first show on Sci-Fi Channel (later, rename as SYFY) when launched in 1992.

Is Supernatural considered as sci-fi show that mixed with fantasy?

 

[Pooky]

Was America's dismissive attitudes toward the sci fi genre during the 2000s caused by the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies and the bad Star Wars sequel trilogy

No because a) the earliest of those films was released in 2009 and b) they were popular. Yes, they had critics, but what doesn't? Certainly The Hobbit films had as many or more, and you are citing those as an example of a growing acceptance of fantasy within the same era.

I will concede that the 09 Star Trek film (and much of the franchise since) openly shed a lot of the more sombre and/or challenging Science-Fiction elements to chase a broader audience and shed its "nerdy" image, but the 80s films did kind of the same thing for the less flashy standards of their day. Heck, it's kind of what Star Wars has been doing since day one.

You set the period as "2000s and early 2010s", so I guess approximately 2000-2013. A big cultural hit of that era was the Battlestar Galactica remake, which was sort of like the Game of Thrones of the 2000s. The Matrix movies were a cultural phenomenon, even if the sequels progressively alienated the mass audience. It launched in 1997, but by 2007 Stargate SG-1 had become (at the time) the longest running US Science Fiction show of all time, and in the 2000s launched two spin-offs (actually more if you count the DTV movies and the animated series), one fairly successful (Atlantis), the other less so (Universe) but still with its fans. There were Farscape and Andromeda, which both started at the start of the 2000s (OK, Farscape started 99) and lasted through to the mid-way point. There was the divisive V remake; some hated it, some love it to this day. There was the Doctor Who revival and Torchwood. There were some slightly atypical shows like The 4400, Fringe, Eureka and The Dead Zone that had decent runs. Firefly wasn't a hit, but it got a huge fanbase on DVD and became a cause celebre for many TV writers, leading to a big screen film version. Even Enterprise made it to 98 episodes and a decent fanbase for its later series. Maybe critics didn't love these shows, and maybe they didn't get the best ratings, but people were watching them

And how do you define Sci-Fi? Did Lost count as Sci-Fi? Do Iron Man, Batman and Spider-Man films count? Arguably they're as much Sci-Fi as Star Wars is.

So I am not, as of yet, convinced by your presence.

 

[wonderfly]

From the premiere of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987 to the end of "Battlestar Galactica" in 2009, these are my favorite years in TV science fiction. (yes, that's 20+ years, I can't help it).

So I don't agree with the premise of the title (the part about "society was dismissive of Sci-fi during the 2000's"), but I think like previous threads you've started up, it's more about the 2008 to 2015 years, and "why wasn't there any grand space operas?" Or rather "why wasn't there a big Sci-Fi hit like what Game of Thrones was for Fantasy"?

And the only thing I can say is: There was a big Sci-Fi hit, it was "Battlestar Galactica" a few years prior (from 2003 to 2006, it was a big deal in pop culture). Why wasn't there one between 2008 and 2015? Well, there was a Recession (which might've prevented big budget sci-fi shows) and....these things go in cycles.

Unless you're talking about Sci-Fi films. "Chronicles of Riddick" tried hard in 2005, but failed. "Star Wars" had finished in 2005 with "Revenge of the Sith", no one anticipated anymore Star Wars films. Sci-Fi went on pause as Hollywood discovered superhero films. What can I say? These things go in cycles.

Still, I'm very happy to see the new "Dune" movies kind of defining the 2020's (maybe the 2020's will be a
return to grand sci-fi space operas). Superhero movies certainly seem on the decline.

Also, "Avatar" and "New Star Trek" in 2009 were big hits. "Avatar" is arguably the "tentpole" acclaimed Sci-Fi film of that era.

 

[Pooky]

Even Dune wasn't completely shut out of the 00s; there were two Sci-Fi Channel mini-series adapting the first 3 books that certainly weren't as popular as the Villeneuve films (or even the Lynch film), and are often mocked for being kind of chintzy and stilted, but they got very impressive (for a Cable show) ratings.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Perhaps we should have gotten a sci fi movie series like Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies instead of the J.J. Abrams "NuTrek".

Not every sci-fi film needs to be a hard sci-fi film like Dune. Sorry but that's how I see it.