Uh-Oh -- We've Already Found Him Once...

Believe it or not, we're almost to the end of our first decade of this new millenium, century and so on. Which means it's time for many many lists about best and worst movies, music, TV, moments, etc., of the decade. We get them in years that end in "9" because: 1) There's little confidence that what's going to be produced in the year that ends in "0" is really going to be that much better or worse; 2) We can always make up a new list next year and say this year's list was really a "so far" list and 3) Folks who make up the lists somehow keep forgetting that decades actually end with years that end in "0," since they start with years that end in "1."

Anyway, a writer at this movie blog noticed another story that showed how many of this decade's top-grossing films (so far!) were from original material and how many were based on other media, like a book or TV show, or were sequels.

No films in the top 10, box-office wise, were ideas dreamed up by someone specifically for the movie screen. You have to drop all the way down to No. 15, where 2003's Finding Nemo sits. Want a second one? Keep going down to No. 30 for last year's Kung Fu Panda from Dreamworks.

We hit a real patch of creativity, now, as the next three films are all original material. Although, since one of them is 2008's confusing super-hero mess Hancock, we can see that "not taken from a movie, book or other media" does not equal "good."

But then it slacks off again until No. 45, where we run into the end-of-the-world clunker The Day After Tomorrow, which backs up the aforementioned "Hancock Postulate." And also, Irwin Allen might question its originality.

In the top 50 moneymakers of this decade (so far!), we have exactly nine non-sequel, non-derived movies. Not necessarily a problem, because sometimes really great movies are adapted from books or other media, and sometimes the second chapter in a story is as well-done as the first. But it does show how much of a play-it-safe game the modern box office has come to be.

And it's also kind of interesting that only two of those nine were movies aimed at an adult audience. The others are all animated films mostly directed at kids.

Well, at least we have one more year to try to reverse this trend. I'm sure that 2010 will teem with original offerings designed to capture that elusive box office cash!

Oh. Never mind, I guess.