  The ultimate success of Hollywood blockbusters is dependent upon  repeat viewings. Fans return to theaters to see films multiple times  and buy DVDs so they can watch movies yet again. Although it is  something of a received dogma in philosophy and psychology that  suspense requires uncertainty, many of the biggest box office  successes are action movies that fans claim to find suspenseful on  repeated viewings. The conflict between the theory of suspense and  the accounts of viewers generates a problem known as the paradox  of suspense, which we can boil down to a simple question: If  suspense requires uncertainty, how can a viewer who knows the outcome still feel suspense? 