Only One Author Ever Had A #1 Movie, TV Show, And Book At The Same Time (Twice)

The best-selling author of all time, as of this writing, remains William Shakespeare, a little-known British playwright from Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, who lived from April 23, 1564 (well, that's the date of his baptism) to April 23, 1616. He wrote some obscure plays that you've probably never heard of. Stuff like "Cardenio," "The Two Noble Kinsmen," and "Edward III." He's not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries Ben Jonson, Philip Henslowe, or John Fletcher. 

But I kid the Bard. There isn't a student in the English-speaking world who wasn't forced through at least four or five Shakespeare plays in high school. Raise your hand if you still remember a Shakespearean soliloquy you were required to memorize for your 10th-grade English class. 

After Shakespeare, some of the best-selling authors of all time include Agatha Christie, Danielle Steele, Harold Robbins, J.K. Rowling, Eiichiro Oda (the author of the "One Piece" manga), and Jackie Collins. No doubt you've explored some of these authors in your spare time at airports. Surprisingly, pulp authors like James Patterson and Dean Koontz have outsold the mega-celebrity Stephen King, although Dr. Seuss and Leo Tolstoy have outsold all three of them. 

All of the above authors, perhaps predictably, have had various films and/or TV shows based on their works, each having been transformed into miniature multimedia franchises unto themselves. Shakespeare alone has had hundreds of movies based on his work.

Only one author, however, has had a hit novel on the New York Time bestsellers list, a #1 hit movie playing in theaters, and a hit TV series airing on TV all within the same year. That author is Michael Crichton, the author of "Jurassic Park" and many others. Crichton hasn't sold as many books as Beatrix Potter, but is still well beyond E.L. James and Stephenie Meyer. 

What's more, he achieved his three-in-one success two times in his career.

It's worth remembering that Crichton created the hit TV series "ER," a series that ran for a whopping 331 episodes over the course of 15 crackerjack seasons. There were likely many authors that had hit movies and bestselling novels at the same time. Indeed, book sales can often be bolstered by the release of a high-profile movie adaptation. But with a hit show like "ER" on the air for so long, Crichton had mastery of a tertiary medium as well. 

"ER" was a huge success by its second season, which means it was running hot on June 9, 1995. That was the weekend that Frank Marshall's adventure film "Congo," hit theaters, based on Crichton's 1980 novel of the same name. The film was critically panned, but it raked in $24.6 million on its opening weekend, beating out the cartoon adaptation "Casper." Both films were trounced the following week by the opening of Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever," but for one week, Michael Crichton had the biggest movie and the biggest TV show at the same time. 

This was rounded out by the overwhelming success of his novel "The Lost World," which was published on September 8. His 1990 novel "Jurassic Park" was already a hit, and demands for a sequel became overwhelming in 1993 when Steven Spielberg adapted it into a movie. Crichton had never written a sequel before, and penned "The Lost World" in a hurry, knowing that a movie was going to be inevitable. The novel wasn't as well-liked as "Jurassic Park," and it limply resurrected the presumed-dead character of Dr. Ian Malcolm, but it was a giant seller nonetheless. Spielberg adapted it into "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in 1997, which was also a pretty giant hit. Crichton passed away in 2008, but they are still making "Jurassic Park" movies to this day. "Jurassic World Rebirth" is due in theaters on July 2, 2025.

Thanks to the continued success of "ER," Crichton remained poised to repeat his record, which he did handily the following year. The 1996 season of "ER" was just as big as the last, and it showed no signs of stopping. Then, when audiences were done eating up the medical series at home, they trekked out to theaters on the weekend of May 10 to watch Jan De Bont's disaster thriller "Twister," which Crichton co-wrote with Anne-Marie Martin. 

"Twister" is not based on one of Crichton's novels, but he was no stranger to screenplays and film direction; he had already written and directed six movies prior to "Twister," including "Westworld" in 1973, "Coma" in 1978, and "Runaway" in 1984. "Twister," sporting impressive special effects, cost $92 million to make, but ended up earning over $495 million at the box office. It was the #2 biggest hit of the year, after "Independence Day," and managed to outgross "Mission: Impossible," "The Rock," and "The Nutty Professor" remake. It played all summer long. 

1996 was also the year that Crichton published his novel "Airframe," a non-genre conspiracy thriller that debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. "Airframe" was a comparatively dry investigative procedural about a plane crash. The protagonist worked for an airline's Incident Review Team, and she uncovered a complex conspiracy involving counterfeit airplane parts, bad piloting, and a big financial deal that was being rushed through. It was a cynical novel about how big corporations react blandly to accidents, and the bleak randomness of death. Between "ER," "Twister," and "Airframe," Crichton had done it again.