As of this writing, author Nicholas Sparks has written 23 novels, and every single one of them has been a New York Times Bestseller. His first novel, “The Passing,” was published in 1985, and he immediately established himself as one of the world’s preeminent pop-romance writers, authoring broad, tragic stories about unquenched longing, suffering lovelorn women, and flawless rescue studs. His 1999 novel “A Walk to Remember” was inspired by the tragic death of his younger sister, killed by cancer at age 33. Sparks’ novels, mostly set in North Carolina, are known for their placid, pastoral tones, sweeping melodrama, and weepy endings.
Hollywood got their hooks into Sparks in 1999 when they adapted his book “Message in a Bottle” into a notable hit starring Kevin Costner. That film made $118 million on a $30 million budget, and major film studios seem to have found a winning formula. Since then, 11 additional Sparks novels have been adapted into films, and most of them have been money-makers. There was, it seems, a huge demand for tragic romances throughout the mid-2000s. The most recent Sparks-based movie was the 2014 TV movie “Deliverance Creek,” a Civil War drama starring Lauren Ambrose that aired on Lifetime. Although film adaptations of Sparks novels have fallen out of favor, the man himself continues to write hit novels. (His latest, “Counting Miracles,” was published in 2024.)
Another notable aspect of Sparks-based movies is that they aren’t typically received well by critics. The 2016 adaptation of “The Choice” only has an 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 83 reviews). And even his best-received movie only has a 54% approval rating, based on 182 review. As Sparks fans may intuit, his best-reviewed film was Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 romance “The Notebook.”