Breakthrough Hit

"When Animal House turned out the way it did, they all rushed to me with barrels of money begging me to make them rich."

—John Landis

This is the very work that practically begins a creator's career and gives them success in their medium. This is the Breakthrough Hit.

For some creators, it could be the very first work they created. For others, it comes only after a series of unsuccessful attempts; these early attempts may end up being Vindicated by History, though. For many of these, creators are often subject to the curse of Tough Act to Follow, as practically every subsequent work may be compared to the breakthrough. More often than not, creators (musicians in particular) often dread the idea of a Black Sheep Hit becoming their breakthrough, as what is intended to be a one-off experiment in other areas may result in the publisher forcing them to follow that style from that point on.

Compare Killer App (equivalent for game systems), Star-Making Role (equivalent for actors), and Gateway Series (equivalent for an entire genre or multimedia franchise). Contrast Creator Killer and One-Hit Wonder.

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Films
• Music
• Video Games

Other examples:

Comic Books

Created the property

• 100 Bullets for Brian Azzarello.
• Action Comics #1 for DC Comics, which featured the debut of Superman.
• Albedo: Erma Felna EDF for Steven A. Gallacci.
• American Vampire for Scott Snyder.
• Captain America for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
• Casanova for Matt Fraction.
• Fantastic Four for Stan Lee.
• Lucifer for Mike Carey.
• Marvels for Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross.
• Phonogram for Kieron Gillen.
• Preacher for Garth Ennis.
• Runaways for Brian K. Vaughan
• The Sandman for Neil Gaiman (though his greater body of work is in regular literature).
• Scott Pilgrim for Bryan Lee O'Malley.
• The Sixth Gun for Cullen Bunn.
• Spider-Man for Steve Ditko.
• Transmetropolitan for Warren Ellis.
• Usagi Yojimbo for Stan Sakai.
• The Walking Dead for Robert Kirkman.
• V for Vendetta for Alan Moore.

Did not create the property but first made their name with it

• The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) for Roger Stern.
• The Avengers for John Buscema and George Pérez (separate runs).
• Batman for Neal Adams and Chuck Dixon (separate runs).
• Batman: The Long Halloween for Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
• Batman Gates Of Gotham and Nightwing for Kyle Higgins.
• Birds of Prey for Gail Simone.
• Black Widow for Nathan Edmondson.
• Captain Marvel for Kelly Sue DeConnick.
• Daredevil for Frank Miller.
• Deadpool for Joe Kelly.
• Doom Patrol and Animal Man for Grant Morrison.
• Fantastic Four for Jonathan Hickman.
• The Flash for Geoff Johns and Mark Waid (separate runs).
• Gotham Central for Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker.
• Green Lantern/Green Arrow for Dennis O Neil.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2008) for Andy Lanning.
• The Incredible Hulk (1968) for Peter David.
• Iron Man for David Micheline.
• Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. for Jim Steranko.
• Ms. Marvel (2014) for G. Willow Wilson.
• New Teen Titans for Marv Wolfman (an update of a Silver Age property).
• Silk for Robbie Thompson.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) and Daredevil for Brian Michael Bendis.
• Uncanny X-Men for Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Jim Lee.
• Wolverine for Jason Aaron.
• Youngblood (2017) for Jim Towe. He has gone on to professional comic art after only doing fan art and commissions on DeviantArt, thanks to this series.

Literature

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for Mark Twain.
• The Andromeda Strain for Michael Crichton.
• Baccano! for Ryohgo Narita.
• The Bad Guys for Aaron Blabey.
• Bakemonogatari for NisiOisiN.
• Carrie for Stephen King. Although it was released on a low print run, its successful movie adaptation brought newfound attention onto the book and King.
• A Certain Magical Index for Kazuma Kamachi.
• The Da Vinci Code for Dan Brown.
• Miguel de Cervantes was regarded as a very mediocre playwright and author of a mildly successful pastoral romance before he published Don Quixote. The rest is history.
• The Dresden Files for Jim Butcher.
• Ender's Game for Orson Scott Card.
• The Fault in Our Stars for John Green. He has had many popular books before this, but this was his first massive hit and the book that really brought him into the public eye. In 2014 alone, only the Divergent trilogy has been able to rival it in sales.
• A Game of Thrones for George R. R. Martin (although it was the TV adaptation, Game of Thrones that got him mainstream recognition).
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for J. K. Rowling.
• The Hobbit for J. R. R. Tolkien. While he is mainly known for its sequel, The Lord of the Rings nowadays, Tolkien wrote it after scoring a hit with the former.
• Horton Hatches the Egg for Dr. Seuss.
• The Hunger Games for Suzanne Collins. Her previous book series, The Underland Chronicles, was not very successful and did not gain retroactive recognition upon "The Hunger Games"' success.
• The Hunt for Red October for Tom Clancy.
• James and the Giant Peach for Roald Dahl.
• KonoSuba for Natsume Akatsuki.
• Less Than Zero for Bret Easton Ellis.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for C. S. Lewis. Most of his work is in Christian apologetics, but he's mainly known for The Chronicles of Narnia today.
• Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit for Nahoko Uehashi.
• Nightfall for Isaac Asimov. As he himself described it "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'".
• The Pickwick Papers for Charles Dickens.
• Sword Art Online for Reki Kawahara.
• Tortilla Flat for John Steinbeck.
• Trainspotting for Irvine Welsh.
• The Twilight Saga for Stephenie Meyer.
• Warhammer 40,000 for Dan Abnett.
• Where Are the Children? for Mary Higgins Clark (her second published novel). Previously, she'd only written short stories and a historical novel that sold poorly. Where Are the Children? quickly became a bestseller and launched her long, successful career as a suspense novelist.

Live-Action TV

• All in the Family for its creator, Norman Lear.
• All That for Dan Schneider.
• House of the Dragon for Ryan Condal.
• Law & Order for Dick Wolf.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson and David Greenwalt. It also gave a start for Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus and Daredevil (2015)) and Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods).
• CSI for Jerry Bruckheimer as a TV producer (since he was already famous for his film work).
• Veronica Mars started Rob Thomas' career as a television producer, although his book Rats Saw God started his career as a novelist.
• Heroes for Tim Kring (although his previous series Crossing Jordan lasted longer).
• Kaamelott for Alexandre Astier.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay.
• Magnum, P.I. for Donald P. Bellisario.
• Lost for J. J. Abrams (though he'd already written or co-written several films and this wasn't his first series, having previously co-created Felicity and created Alias).
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for Haim Saban.
• Double Dare (1986) for Marc Summers and Nickelodeon.
• Survivor for Mark Burnett.
• Two and a Half Men for Chuck Lorre (though he was already known for Grace Under Fire and Dharma & Greg).
• Grey's Anatomy for Shonda Rhimes.
• H.R. Pufnstuf for Sid And Marty Krofft.
• House of Cards (US) for Netflix as a provider of original programming.
• Mad Men for AMC.
• Arrow for Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. Berlanti and Guggenheim worked on the less successful but still well-received Eli Stone beforehand, while Kreisberg was a writer for various shows.
• Game of Thrones for David Benioff and DB Weiss. Benioff was a prolific author and screenwriter and was probably best known for his screenplay to Troy, which while very successful hasn't made a fraction of Game of Thrones cultural impact. Weiss was also and author and screenwriter, but didn't have much to his resume at the time of the show's launch.
• Pushing Daisies for Bryan Fuller.
• The X-Files for Chris Carter. It also gave a start for Vince Gilligan and Michelle MacLaren (both on Breaking Bad).
• Breaking Bad for Gilligan, MacLaren, plus Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz, Peter Gould, Sam Catlin, Gennifer Hutchison and Moira Walley-Beckett.
• Agent Carter for Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas.
• Arrested Development for Mitchell Hurwitz. It also gave a start for Joe and Anthony Russo (Community, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War).
• Community for Dan Harmon.
• The Handmaid's Tale for Hulu as a provider of original programming.
• Transparent for Amazon Prime.
• Supergirl for Ali Adler.
• Stranger Things for the Duffer Brothers.
• Disney Channel
  • Lizzie McGuire was the network's first big original show, and marked a hit for Terri Minsky, known for writing two episodes of Sex and the City. Minsky would later return to the network for Andi Mack.
  • That's So Raven for Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman. Poryes would go on to co-create the much more successful Hannah Montana.
  • Phil of the Future for Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile, both of whom were writer/producers on Lizzie McGuire.
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody for Jim Geoghan, who was known at the time for his work on Family Matters. The sequel series The Suite Life on Deck put Pamela Eells O'Connell in the hot seat for the first time after her work on the original. She later created Spiritual Successor show Jessie and its spin-off Bunk'd.
  • Hannah Montana was the first lead outing for sitcom veterans Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien.
  • Cory in the House for Dennis Rinsler and Marc Warren, both best known at the time for their work on Full House.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place for Hannah Montana writer and NBC alumnus Todd Greenwald.
  • Sonny with a Chance for animation veteran Steve Marmel as a live-action creator.
  • Jonas LA for Friends' Michael Curtis and Shrek co-writer Roger Schumann
  • Good Luck Charlie for the team of Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, formerly of Sonny with a Chance.
  • A.N.T. Farm for Dan Signer of Suite Life fame. He would later go on to create a pair of Kid Coms in his native Canada, Mr. Young and Some Assembly Required.
  • Austin & Ally for Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert, who had worked on Nickelodeon hits in the past.
• Smart Guy for Danny Kallis, who would go on to create The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
• Bosom Buddies for the late Chris Thompson, who would later re-emerge to create the Disney Channel hit Shake it Up.
• Fleabag for Phoebe Waller-Bridge (for whom it was also a Star-Making Role as lead actor).
• Press Gang for Steven Moffat.
• The Young Ones for Ben Elton.
• Babylon 5 for J. Michael Straczynski.
• Spaced for Edgar Wright.

Newspaper Comics

• Li'l Abner for Al Capp.
• Krazy Kat for George Herriman.
• Peanuts for Charles M. Schulz.
• Garfield for Jim Davis.
• Calvin and Hobbes for Bill Watterson.

Pinball

• Star Wars (Data East) for John Borg.
• Monster Bash for George Gomez.
• Wizard! for Greg Kmiec.
• FunHouse (1990) for Pat Lawlor.
• Theatre of Magic for John Popadiuk.
• Flash for Steve Ritchie.
• Contact for Harry Williams.
• Based on early playtests, Big Bang Bar was expected to be this for Capcom Pinball, but the division was closed before it was released.

Radio Drama

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978) for Douglas Adams.

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering for Richard Garfield and Wizards of the Coast
• Dungeons & Dragons for Gary Gygax and TSR.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition for Monte Cook.
  • Pathfinder, a derivative of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition OGL, for Paizo Publishing.
• While Warhammer made Games Workshop popular enough to begin their own gaming system, Warhammer 40,000 and Dawn of War, the strategy game based off it, would be what eventually put them on the map.
  • Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader for Fantasy Flight Games in the Tabletop RPG market, though they were already well-established as a Board Game company beforehand.
• Vampire: The Masquerade for White Wolf.
• Though already known as a War Gaming company at the time, Game Designers' Workshop is better known today for its first foray into the Tabletop RPG market, a little Space Opera game called Traveller.
• GURPS or Munchkin for Steve Jackson Games.
• Champions for Hero Games.
• Mutants & Masterminds for Green Ronin Publishing.
• Legend of the Five Rings for Alderac Entertainment Group.
• Big Eyes, Small Mouth for Guardians of Order.
• Call of Cthulhu for Chaosium.
• Star Wars The Roleplaying Game for West End Games.
• Rifts for Palladium Books.
• Fate for Evil Hat Productions.
• Deadlands for Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
• Mongoose Publishing's versions of Traveller and RuneQuest, which allowed them to branch out from d20/OGL products.
• Cyberpunk for R. Talsorian Games.
• BattleTech for FASA Corporation.

Theatre

• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• Tancredi for Gioachino Rossini.
• Nabucco for Giuseppe Verdi.
• Rodgers and Hart made their breakthrough with Garrick Gaieties, a 1925 revue that began as a benefit concert put on to furnish the Theater Guild's new home.
• Rienzi was Richard Wagner's third opera and the first to be produced to success. Wagner later disowned it, however.
• Le Cirque Réinventé for Cirque du Soleil. In hindsight, this show (the company's third) has a lot of Early-Installment Weirdness, being conceptually simple compared to what followed, but it was their first show to tour beyond Canada and served as an introduction to the contemporary circus genre for U.S. audiences who mostly knew only the (at the time) fairly stale traditional style performed by Ringling Bros. and the like.
• Cabaret for John Kander and Fred Ebb, and Harold Prince as a director. (Prince had been previously involved with the hit shows The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Fiddler on the Roof, but only on the producing side.)
• Brigadoon for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.
• Jerome Kern's songs for the 1914 musical The Girl from Utah moved him into the top tier of Broadway songwriters. Ironically, he wasn't the principal songwriter, which he had been on two less successful previous musicals, though a new Medley Overture was devoted to his interpolated songs.
• Peter Grimes for Benjamin Britten.
• Agnes de Mille had her first major success on the ballet stage with Rodeo, and shortly thereafter made the breakthrough in musical theatre which had previously eluded her with Oklahoma!.
• Manon Lescaut for Giacomo Puccini.
• Beyond the Horizon for Eugene O'Neill.
• All My Sons for Arthur Miller.
• Oklahoma! for Rodgers and Hammerstein. The two writers were known independently beforehand for productions such as Show Boat (for Hammerstein) and A Connecticut Yankee (for Rodgers), then Oklahoma! ensured that the two creators would be inseparable in public knowledge from then on.
• West Side Story for Stephen Sondheim.
• On the Town established the Broadway careers of Comden and Green and Jerome Robbins, and could have done the same for Leonard Bernstein if his mentor Serge Koussevitzky had not convinced him to not dedicate his career to musicals—though this didn't stop him from composing several more.
• 1776 for Peter Stone.
• Lucia di Lammermoor for Gaetano Donizetti. Several factors helped in making this opera a success. At the time, Gioachino Rossini had retired and Vincenzo Bellini had passed away, which left Donizetti as "the sole reigning genius of Italian opera". There was also a large European interest in Scotland's history and culture, especially the romance of the country's violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology.
• In the Heights for Lin-Manuel Miranda.
• There is considerable debate on the exact chronology of William Shakespeare's plays, but it is generally agreed on that his first big hits were the Henry VI plays.

Visual Novels

• Palmer was the lead developer for Daughter for Dessert, and pretty much built his fan base from this game.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater for Brian Clevinger.
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja for Christopher Hastings.
• Dinosaur Comics for Ryan North.
• MS Paint Adventures (more specifically, Homestuck) for Andrew Hussie.
• Penny Arcade for Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins.
• Rain (2010) for Jocelyn Samara.
• Scary Go Round for John Allison.

Web Original

• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series for LittleKuriboh.
• The Angry Video Game Nerd for James Rolfe.
• The Nostalgia Critic for Doug Walker and Channel Awesome. While the site had a number of characters and series, the Nostalgia Critic quickly became synonymous with the website and by far its most popular offering. In spite of attempts to distance himself and retire from the character, Walker was forced to return to it due to lukewarm reactions to his subsequent efforts.
• Kids React (specifically, to Rebecca Black's "Friday") for The Fine Brothers.
• Red vs. Blue for Rooster Teeth.
• Fails of the Weak for Achievement Hunter. Later on, Let's Play Minecraft for their Let's Play videos.
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged for Team Four Star.
• The Most Popular Girls in School for Mark Cope and Carlo Moss.
• RedLetterMedia was put on the map by its Mr. Plinkett Reviews series after their seven-part The Phantom Menace review went viral as a pioneer of long-form video essays. Fans continued to clamor for more Plinkett reviews even after the channel branched out into additional shows, prompting the creators to snark back at fans who only wanted Plinkett. Over the years, however, the other shows gained followings of their own, and Plinkett reviews have been shifted to the back burner.
• Who Let the Chomp Out? for supermarioglitchy4.

Western Animation

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies:
  • Porky Pig, created by Friz Freleng and introduced in 1935's "I Haven't Got A Hat", was their breakthrough star. Incidentally, Porky wasn't the main star of this film: the twin dog duo of Ham and Ex (who sing the title theme), were earmarked as the future stars of Warner Bros. cartoons.
  • Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd: "A Wild Hare", released in 1940. Earlier cartoons had templates of both characters, but this was the first film to feature official versions of the iconic cartoon stars.
  • Daffy Duck: "Porky's Duck Hunt" from 1937, in which he was a supporting character who drove Porky Pig nuts.
  • Sylvester the Cat: Although his first film was "Life with Feathers" (where a suicidal bird tries to get eaten but the cat refusing because he thinks he's poison), it was the puddy tat's pairing with a certain yellow, blue-eyed canary – Tweety Bird, in "Tweetie Pie" – that made our hapless, lisping black-and-white cat a star.
  • Foghorn Leghorn: The loud-mouthed rooster's breakthrough was "Walky Talky Hawky".
  • Speedy Gonzales: Although his first film was 1953's "Cat-Tails for Two", it was his eponymous Oscar-winning 1955 short that cemented him as a star.
  • Tex Avery: his first big hit was his 6th short "I Love to Singa" (1936).
  • Bob Clampett: his first big hit was "Porky in Wackyland" (1938).
  • Chuck Jones: while he had been directing for a few years beforehand, his first big hit was "The Dover Boys" (1942).
• Steamboat Willie for Walt Disney.
• Woody Woodpecker for the Walter Lantz cartoon studio.
• Rugrats for Klasky-Csupo studios and Nicktoons on Nickelodeon.
• Dexter's Laboratory for Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCracken as a writer, and Cartoon Network's original programming.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) for Craig McCracken as a producer, also giving Lauren Faust a start as a writer and director.
• The Fairly OddParents! for Butch Hartman.
• Tiny Toon Adventures for Warner Bros. Animation.
• Batman: The Animated Series for Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.
• Gargoyles for Greg Weisman.
• John Kricfalusi had a long career before then, but The Ren & Stimpy Show is what made him truly famous.
• The Simpsons for Matt Groening and the Fox network.
• South Park for Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
• Family Guy for Seth MacFarlane. It also gave a start for Dan Povenmire via its "Road to..." episodes.
• Johnny Bravo for Van Partible. It also gave a start to the aforementioned Seth MacFarlane and Butch Hartman (as well as Steve Marmel) in the art of writing.
• Ben 10 for Man of Action Studios.
• Gerald McBoing-Boing for Columbia Cartoons.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Transformers: Prime for The Hub network (which would later become Discovery Family). The former also established Lauren Faust as a producer even though she departed after its second season.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender for Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. It also gave a start for Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Giancarlo Volpe (Green Lantern: The Animated Series).
• DuckTales (1987) for Walt Disney Television Animation.
• Gravity Falls for Alex Hirsch.
• While 6teen put Fresh TV on the map in Canada with its success on Teletoon, it was Total Drama that truly helped the company skyrocket internationally due to it being a massive hit on Cartoon Network in the United States.
• Inspector Gadget for DiC Entertainment.
• Care Bears (1980s) for Nelvana. The studio's acquisition of the franchise in 1986 played a massive role in saving them from their struggles with near-bankruptcy following the Box Office Bomb of Rock and Rule in 1983.
• Doug for Jumbo Pictures.
• Recess for Paul Germain, Joe Ansolabehere, and One Saturday Morning.
• Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) for Christopher Yost.
• Kim Possible for the team of Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, as well as Disney Channel original animation.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man for Victor Cook and Andrew Robinson.
• Regular Show for JG Quintel.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold for James Tucker and Michael Jelenic.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated for Mitch Watson.
• Green Lantern: The Animated Series for Jim Krieg.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, Katie Lucas, Matt Michnovetz and Brent Friedman.
• Adventure Time for Pendleton Ward.
• Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones for Hanna-Barbera.
• Winx Club for Rainbow S.R.L.
• Miraculous Ladybug for Zagtoon.
• SpongeBob SquarePants for Stephen Hillenburg, and possibly the peak for Nickelodeon as a whole in terms of popularity.
• While Keith Chapman's other children's TV show Bob the Builder was popular, PAW Patrol became extremely popular when it was released, to the point where he's earning more money off this show than he did with Bob The Builder back when it was popular. It's also considered this for the toymaker Spin Master, as they did not have a flagship franchise like most toy companies do until the release of the PAW Patrol toyline.
• Final Space is one of the only two shows planned for TBS's ill-fated animation line-up which actually made it to air, the other being the Short-Runner Tarantula!, this was the only one which saw any success.
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) for Rankin/Bass Productions.
• Rocko's Modern Life for Joe Murray. It also gave a start for the aforementioned Stephen Hillenburg.
• While the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was reasonably successful to begin with, it was Tom and Jerry that catapulted them into fame. It also kickstarted the long careers of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

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