To be fair, Serenity was a much weaker movie, as a stand-alone thing. It failed to expand beyond the core fan base much. A relative of mine went to see it 6 times during the opening weekend to goose the numbers, but only because he was a fan of the show.
Yeah I also had the odd acquaintance that did the same, ironically 99.9% of my other friends who claim to be "fans" and that Firefly is the "best thing ever" never bothered.
I don't think most of them even waited for it to come out on DVD but most likely pirated it and maybe bought it once it hit the bargain bin.
Various excuses have been used from "I don't want to see an episode in the theater" to "I don't want to give Fox money" but it doesn't really matter, people didn't came out to see it, and even the DVD sales unlike Firefly were pretty weak.
Anecdotally your friend that went to see it 6 times is also likely the reason why Firefly gets more votes cast on IMDB than The X-Files or Seinfeld.
"Various excuses have been used from "I don't want to see an episode in the theater" to "I don't want to give Fox money"
I heard similar from some of my friends. I kept trying to explain to them that Fox wouldn't make any money from the movie, which was released by Universal. (Fox had long since passed on continuing the show/property in any form. Fans should have been supporting Universal for picking up what it believed Fox didn't handle well, and for attempting to give the series a new lease on life. In fact, Uni had intended to make a trilogy.)
