[improbus]

Two other points:
1) The real reason Hollywood makes big, easy sequels is the international market. The American market is only about 1/4 of Hollywoods total gross on most films and big explosions and simpler films tend to be easier to watch in translation (like watching Wile E. Coyote cartoons on international flights).

2) If we rewarded the movies you mentioned the way we do Transformers, we would get more of them. Hollywood (and any business) responds to what works in the market. If all we demanded was Inception like High Concept movies, that is what we would get from the big studios. The same goes for Reality TV, top 40 radio, fast food, the BCS, etc.... We can complain about all of them, but we (the market) pay for all of them and provide them with the incentive to make more of it.