The 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King’s IT shattered box-office expectations, quickly establishing itself as one of the most successful horror films in history. So what made IT such a blockbuster phenomenon? It was the perfect storm of nostalgia, character-driven storytelling, and smart marketing. IT tapped into a powerful wave of 1980s nostalgia. The film arrived at the height of our cultural obsession with revisiting the past, heralded by shows like Stranger Things and movies like...

As a romance author, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make readers fall in love with a character. It’s not always about the chiseled jaw or the charming banter (though those don’t hurt). Sometimes readers want a hero who blurs the lines between right and wrong to achieve their goals. In First Blood , David Morrell introduced the world to Rambo, the original morally gray hero. The Broken Hero Before It Was Cool When First Blood  hit shelves in 1972, America was reeling from the...

When you combine a beloved story, a massive global audience, brilliant marketing, and breathtaking world-building, you get more than a successful movie. You get a cultural event. Generations grew up with Bilbo Baggins’s unexpected adventure. And after the massive success of the The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King trilogy, audiences were eager to return to Middle-earth for The Hobbit. The movie was a homecoming for fans. Fanatics packed the theaters on opening weekend and beyond....