>>10586693It's a combination of what
>>10586797 said, but also something else:
Now, you could sell anything if you market it correctly; everyone knows this. Problem is marketing takes work.
During the 2000s, on top of a bunch of original programming, we were also getting our very first majorly-successful reboots of popular 80s franchises, right at the point when 80s kids were around just hitting their mid-20s. It was perfectly timed for appealing to both the older fans and new ones at the same time; this goes for Transformers, TMNT, Power Rangers, and even to a lesser extent He-Man and G.I. Joe - fuck, even TRON was arguably more popular in the early '10s than it ever was in the 80s. (I would know, I was a kid who grew up in the 2000s myself. These reboots were just as prominent to me as the new original shows).
Problem is, corporations realized that the work they put in 20 years ago was paying off for them now; it meant they had to do less of a bother to "get the word out" no need to hype up your franchise if it's all ready super-engrained and well-known, a new entry in a classic property already generated a ton of hype merely by being announced. Therefore, the thought had become, "why bother trying to build up these new franchises when it's so much easier to let the classic ones make money for us with less effort?" Hence the reboot hellscape we've been living in since the mid-2010s.
(Ironically in TRON's case tho, because it wasn't a hit in the 80s, the reboot was basically as much effort to Disney as marketing a new franchise. To their credit I think they were doing well building up its rep, but then they bought Lucasfilm and immediately gave up: "lol why bother building up a Star Wars killer when we just own SW now outright? No use spending more effort than necessary!")
