In 2005 the screenwriter Blake Snyder published Save the Cat! His “beat sheet” lists “the 15 essential ‘beats’ or plot points that all stories should contain.”
In 2013 the critic Peter Suderman wrote in Slate: “In practice, Snyder’s beat sheet has taken over Hollywood screenwriting.” He added: “Movies big and small stick closely to his beats and page counts.” Among his examples were Star Trek Into Darkness, Fast & Furious 6 and Monsters University. In 2018 the template was adapted for novelists in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.