How Hollywood’s addiction to franchises changed movies in 2014

Really, what he's lamenting is the end of big-budget original movies. At the end of the day, it's hard to argue Hollywood should invest $300m into something completely untested when Avengers will easily make $1bn.

Fortunately, while the big blockbusters cost astronomical amounts of money, the actual cost of making a movie is only going down. There are independent studios popping up, and while they aren't usually considered part of the Big 6, they do tend to invest in them(While not grossing, a ton, they still have decent margins esp. if it becomes a sleeper hit). As long as you don't demand that Hollywood spoon-feed you taste from their marketing budget, there is plenty at your local independent theater to watch.

Anything with a sequence-number in its title is, by definition, not worth wasting hard-earned money on.

And don't get me started on low-quality CGI effects which continually take you 'out of narrative'.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8828155