IIRC in the US both TNG (I saw in one interview with Roddenberry where he stated that the was the ONLY way he agreed to the show because of his resentment over network interference on TOS) and DS9 were first-run syndicated shows. Voyager was, if you pardon the expression, the flagship show for the UPN and so was Enterprise.Warcry wrote:I haven't even considered going to see this after how much I didn't enjoy the first two. I'll probably see it on DVD or something eventually, but the first two made it pretty clear that the reboots aren't for me. I'd imagine I'm not the only old-school Trek fan who thinks that way, and the franchise has never really been embraced by the same generic action movie crowd that Star Wars or even Transformers manage to bring in. So if the fans are souring on things the box office performance is going to show it.
Also, I wanted to reply to something dalek said in a different, comic-spoiler-filled thread but didn't want to totally derail yet another comic discussion thread into Star Trek rambling, so...
It probably depends on the market you're in, and how the shows were/are distributed there, but here at least Voyager has always been the stronger of the two shows and it's not even really close. Going back to when they were first broadcast, unless my memory is failing me DS9 was crammed into a Saturday afternoon death slot while Voyager got broadcast in prime time. And Voyager thrived in syndication -- it ran on local channels for ages, and then on the cable sci-fi network (alongside TNG and TOS but, notably, not DS9) for ages more. I think the Trek reruns have finally been dropped from the rotation this year, but there was Voyager available on my TV screen for two decades and I can't say that about DS9.
I think TNG being successful as a first-run syndicated show opened the doors to other studios to give shows like Babylon 5 and Xena a way to create other sci-fi and fantasy shows that would never found an audience on the four major US networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox) in the late 80s/early 90s just before the cable network explosion happened and probably helped that in some ways in finding out that sci-fi and fantasy shows could do well ratings wise, make money, and be thought-provoking and dramatic.