The advantage of shooting on film with a lower budget is that it forces the director and dp to plan everything out as much as possible. There isn't room in the budget for very many takes and none for reshoots. You can't just shoot until it's right, you better rehearse and have your shit together or your burn through film like crazy.

And I personally don't think the magic of film will ever be matched. The magic is in the organic process. But I do believe cameras will reach look that isn't video or film, but something all together different.

The Hobbit was a step in that direction, but imho, not the right project for that ultra sharp look (and they need to relearn how to light so it doesn't feel like a BBC soap opera from 1996). I want to see a sci-fi movie shot at 6K and 60fps, use the tech to compliment the story. Star Trek or Star Wars maybe, but even better if it's not something that is already in our collective consciousness, something completely new.

I find the high frame-rate stuff to be "hyper-real", and to spoil the magical surreality you want in a LotR-style movie. I think 48/60fps will make its big break with a heavily grounded films in the style of End of Watch or Chronicle, where that non-theatrical realism can be leveraged instead of fought against.

High frame rates also raise the bar for the actors every bit as much talkies did; micro-expressions become much more obvious at 60fps.

Never thought about the hfr with a movie like End of Watch, not sure I agree though. I like the staccato motion of films like that and hfr may be too real, honestly I'd have to see it before I could answer. Although an action flick like the Bourne series, The Matrix, or other fast paced action heavy movie could benefit from the smooth motion. My money is still on sci-fi and futurism, especially something that needs to feel a bit sterile.

And it definitely raises the bar, more so than SD to HD did. Everything from make-up, props, set design, lighting, acting, everything will have to adjust.

Post might take the biggest hit. Post-production times will quadruple. It takes a lot longer to retouch/wire removal/matte painting at 60fps than 24fps. And you can hide a lot with the motion blur at 24fps. I trained a group of photoshop retouchers in motion vfx. The biggest adjustment for them was learning that it didn't have to be perfect because it was hidden behind motion blur at 24fps. It just had to fool the eye for a few seconds as opposed to a still that someone is staring at. Moving to 48 and 60fps will reverse that, it will need to be nearly as perfect in motion as a still image.

It seems very unlikely to me, assuming a digital process is invented that can capture at least the information that film captures (and it is borderline preposterous to suppose that this will not happen), that someone won't work out a transfer function (I'm abusing this term, but you get the idea) that closely maps digital to film. Whether or not people will want that is another question entirely, but it would probably be used as a niche effect for getting an old-timey feel.