Why is science fiction such a popular genre?

I want your opinions on why you like it IF you like it. i want to know what movies have made sci-fi popular and WHY PEOPLE LIKE IT SO MUCH!Why is science fiction such a popular genre?
bcoz in science fiction u have to let ur imagination go wild

and the imagination can go to any lenghts and the product usually created gives an idea of novelty which takes us from the world of reality and problems and sadness. science fiction is a kind of a dream in an awake state so people like to dream and become lost in the world of dreams
I loved watching "War of the Worlds" on the big screen. It felt like I was living the experience. I love science fiction, as opposed to fantasy, because it is possible, scientifically, that it COULD happen. I just have to believe what I see, no "magic" involved in order to get into it. Then there are books like Farenheit 451, which give a political message, which appeal to me. It uses an imaginative way to make a point.Why is science fiction such a popular genre?
The real world would be boring enough so thats why we need to escape to the impossible. I'm an avid fan of Harry Potter and I read them more than once and, well I'm in another world.Why is science fiction such a popular genre?
I think it's because a lot of people actually think that the things that they read is sci-fi books are true or possible. It's a stretch of the imagination
Before the time of movies there were a number of sci-fi books, some of them written in as early as the 18th century (HOLBERG, [Baron] LUDVIG (A.) (1684-1754) (chron.)

The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground (University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books , Oct 2004, utopian SF novel, originally published in Latin and first published in English in the UK (Astley %26amp; Collins 1742) as A Journey to the World Under-ground by Nicholas Klimius.

Some said (mostly old-fashioned communist authorities in the eastern block in the 1960s) that sci-fi is an escape from reality, but I'd say it helps understand today's sophisticated society and the motifs of human life if we sort of step back and watch ourselves from a certain distance - either in space or time. Isn't Rip van Winkle a sort of time-travelling story?