Swapping screens

The formula
Here is the formula movie studios employ when considering whether or not to make a sequal"
(Cost of making a movie) -(Money that movie makes) = X
If X is positive, make a sequel. Repeat equation until X < 0.

Silver Screen to Soaps
Sooner or later, every studio will have found several movie series that makes money every time. They will never again make original movies, just pay screenwriters to keep coming up with sequels. Theater will become exactly like television, except the shows will come out bi-annually instead of weekly. You will say to your friends, "Do you guys want to go see Pirates of the Carribean 83 or Shrek 91?" Finally, the studios will just stop numbering the movies all together. Theaters will invest in permanent, unchanging signs.


...And vice versa
Ironically, even as movies are becoming TV shows, TV shows are becoming less stale and predictable. In essence, they are becoming less like TV shows and more like movies. What is behind this sudden transformation? TiVo.

TiVo means that we actually have a choice about what to watch. Television networks assumed for years that people liked melodramatic, formulaic, half-hours of canned laughter, so each one provided three hours of such shows nightly. Their evidence for this assumption: people watch three hours of melodramatic, formulaic, half-hours of canned laughter every night. This circular logic continued for years until finally TiVo came along. Suddenly, we people got to chose what to watch, and, to everyone's surprise, it turned out to be something other than melodramatic, formulaic, half-hours of canned laughter. Almost immediately, people discovered that there were a few good shows out there. These shows became big hits, and the networks suddenly realized there was a market for out there for thoughtful television. As a result, (I would argue) there are more good television shows out there than ever before, and the number continues to grow. It turned out that all that was needed was a little competition to produce a quality product.