This week's box office, however, proves it can be done, given the continuing success of "Beauty and the Beast" and the estimated $40.5 million debut of "Power Rangers." Disney's live-action remake of the animated classic held on to the top spot in its second weekend, with an impressive $88.3 million. (Some pundits predict that tally could go up to $90 or $91 million by Monday, a crazy-good total for a second weekend.)

The weekend results also offer a cautionary tale of how not to do it, with "CHiPs" opening well below expectations in seventh place, with an estimated $7.6 million.

Why did digging up the past work so well for "Beauty" and "Power Rangers," and so poorly for "CHiPs"? Here are the reasons.

From the show and about $6 billion worth of toys out there.

"CHiPs" (that's how they spelled it then) may have had a big pop culture footprint 40 years ago, but aside from whatever lingering fondness our culture still has for the NBC motorcycle cop action series, which ran from 1977 to 1983, but the show hasn't been seen much in reruns since then. So it's hard to imagine too many fans, new or old, yearning to see Ponch and Jon ride side by side down the Pacific Coast Highway once more.

"Power Rangers" was a trickier adaptation. The original was fun and campy and colorful but also thoroughly juvenile. What could give the Lionsgate remake appeal to fans who are now grown-ups as well as teens who've never seen the old show? Make it into a young-adult sci-fi/fantasy movie (with a strong dose of Marvel). This YA-y approach worked very well for Lionsgate in the past, with the "Twilight" and "Hunger Games" franchises. The result seemed to hit the demographic sweet spot, with the movie drawing an audience that was 50 percent over age 25 and 30 percent under 18.

"CHiPs" underwent a more radical overhaul, with writer/director/star Dax Shepard playing up the comedy and giving the characters elaborate backstories. In other words, it's "CHiPs" in name and premise only; most of what original "CHiPs" fans may have loved about the old show is gone. Granted, this approach worked for the "21 Jump Street" movies, but at least those were well-written and acutely self-aware. And they also had one asset that "CHIPS" lacks --

"Beauty" and "Power Rangers" both get by without star power being much of an issue. Because the titles and brand are the draw. "Power Rangers" features "Hunger Games" alumna Elizabeth Banks in a well-tailored role as its diva villain, but no one's coming to see her; it's all about the quintet of heroes in the candy-colored costumes.

"Power Rangers" may be a lot more mature than its TV source, but it's still rated PG-13, the ideal rating to draw fans who want to see a movie with some grit but without keeping young ticketbuyers away. Even "Beauty" is rated PG, which is about as far as it can go to indicate grown-up content while still being a family movie.

The week's lone new movie that wasn't a remake, sci-fi/horror thriller "Life," should have been a bigger draw for women, both because of its horror premise and the casting of both Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. Nonetheless, the film opened in fourth place, underperforming with an estimated $12.6 million. "Life" failed to draw women (its audience was just 45 percent female), maybe because they were all still lining up for "Beauty."

You'd think "Life" would have done well, thanks to its star power and decent reviews. But audiences didn't like it (it earned a dismal C+ at CinemaScore), suggesting that the movie would have done poorly even on a less competitive weekend.

It's this kind of disappointing result, for an original screenplay filmed with a star-studded cast on a modest budget ($58 million), that leads Hollywood to believe it's safer just to keep filming remakes.