By the turn of the millennium, the average production cost of an American feature had already spent three years above the mark. In 2005, the top ten movies at the U.S. box office included three adaptations of children's fantasy novels, one extending and another initiating a series ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and ', respectively), a child-targeted cartoon ("Madagascar"), a comic book adaptation ("Batman Begins"), a sci-fi series installment ('), a sci-fi remake ("War of the Worlds"), and a "King Kong" remake. It was a slow year for Corman: he produced just one movie, which had no American theatrical release, true of most of the pictures he had been involved in over the preceding decade. As big-budget Hollywood movies further usurped traditional low-rent genres, the ongoing viability of the familiar brand of B movie was in grave doubt. "New York Times" critic A. O. Scott warned of the impending "extinction" of "the cheesy, campy, guilty pleasures" of the B picture.