On average, 150 films are widely released into theatres per year by movie studios. Over the years, those movies can pile up and it becomes much harder to come up with an original idea. Is it possible that after all this time, the spark that makes original screenplays into monster hit movies disappeared?

When one looks at Coed Magazine’s article “The 20 Most Anticipated Movies of 2010,” thirteen out of the twenty movies on the list are either adaptations or remakes. To be fair, adaptations/remakes have an advantage because there is already a fan base whose excitement over a movie being made of their beloved book series or old TV show. But really- are there so few original screenplays that can inspire the same anticipation?

To compare, 44 of the 147 wide-release films in 2000 were adaptations or remakes of another movie. In 2009, 64 out of 151 wide-release films were adaptations or remakes. Sequels were not counted unless they were also a remake/adaptation of a subsequent novel or other such media.

This loss of originality isn’t only in the film industry. When the Haiti earthquake hit, musicians such as Lil Wayne, P!nk, Justin Bieber, and close to 70 others gathered to do a remake of the 1985 charity single “We Are the World” and donate all of the proceeds to charity. It’s wonderful that Hollywood has its heart in the right place by doing such a thing to help a country befallen by a natural disaster, but what would have been so wrong with someone writing a new charity single for Haiti and making that a classic?

Also, the CW television network currently has three major shows that are all adaptations/remakes: The Vampire Diaries, which are based off of the book series of the same name by LJ Smith; 90210, a remake of Beverly Hills, 90210; and Melrose Place, a remake of a series of the same name.

Making an original idea is hard, but not impossible. Take 2009’s sleeper hit The Hangover for example. It seemed like the typical “Wild night in Las Vegas” movie, but turned out to be about what happened after the wild night in Vegas. All it takes is a new spin on an old idea to make a hit from a cliché plot.