Wired News: Hollywood Eats Sci-Fi's Brains

Made for an estimated $35 million, The Fountain earned a paltry $5 million over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Those numbers mark a huge disappointment for Warner Bros. and Aronofsky, and another grievous wound for serious-minded sci-fi.

Hollywood has all but stopped producing challenging sci-fi films like The Fountain. Instead, Tinseltown funnels more and more resources into mega-budget, formula-driven and generally mediocre superhero and fantasy films.

In an era of dwindling sci-fi cinema, 2006 has been an especially dire year. Subtract the superhero and video game adaptations, and what's left? The Fountain, Universal Studios' upcoming Children of Men and independents like The Science of Sleep and A Scanner Darkly -- films that some purists wouldn't call sci-fi at all.