I think not spending more money is the root of the remakes. The studios that put them out already own rights to the original, and I'm sure those contracts involve any re-telling stemming from them (it's the studio's story now), so they don't have to pay someone who could re-negotiate again and cost them a lot more money. They can bring in some cheap writers, change a couple of things based on current culture or what they think audiences want and vomit out remakes at will, cashing in on their original investment. But that's just my opinion.