Science Fiction appeals to the male brain's obsession with structure, order, pattern recognition, and penchant for legalism. You can see a sci-fi movie and the

Science Fiction appeals to the male brain's obsession with structure, order, pattern recognition, and penchant for legalism. You can see a sci-fi movie and then spend hours pondering how to fill in the rest of the blanks in the galaxy that the movie introduced. Romantic comedies, on the other hand, don't ping those same pleasure sensors. I think this was one reason why Firefly, though definitely beloved by many, remained a cult show and failed as a movie, it was half story and half mythology, so neither the nerds nor the mainstream could ever totally embrace it.