tentpole movie
tentpole movie noun: a major motion picture which is expensive to produce but expected to generate significant revenue for its studio and investors.
Noun
tentpole movie (plural tentpole movies)
- A major motion picture which is expensive to produce but expected to generate significant revenue for its studio and investors.
- United Artists hasn't prospered in recent years, so a box office hit from its tentpole movie franchise is essential.1995 August 11, Steve Persall, “Critic's Notebook: Previews whet our cinematic appetites”, in St. Petersburg Times, page 6
- Just coincidentally, it also provides the opportunity for the sorts of extravagant computerized effects that create tentpole movie attractions these days.2005 December 3, Todd McCarthy, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, in Variety, retrieved 28 Sep 2012
- Synonyms:
- tentpole film
Examples of tentpole movie in a sentence
- The tentpole movie is an attraction popular and exploitable enough to prop up the entire moviegoing tent for several weeks or even months.2007 May 25, “The 1997 Summer Movie Review”, in Washington Times, retrieved 28 Sep 2012:
- “We've never seen a high-profile film—a film of this budget, a tentpole movie with this box office potential—leak in any form this early,” he said.2009 April 1, Brian Stelter, “Piracy Puts Film Online One Month Before Open”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Sep 2012:
- So we’re thinking big tentpole movie versus introverted indie.2012 February 14, “Guillermo del Toro to direct Emma Watson in “Beauty and the Beast””, in IFC, retrieved 28 Sep 2012:
Synonyms of tentpole movie
Forms of tentpole movie
| plural | tentpole movies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | tent-pole movie |
Origin of tentpole movie
An allusion to the manner in which a supporting tentpole holds up the structure of a tent.
Questions about tentpole movie
- What does tentpole movie mean?
- Tentpole movie means a major motion picture which is expensive to produce but expected to generate significant revenue for its studio and investors.
- How do you use tentpole movie in a sentence?
- The tentpole movie is an attraction popular and exploitable enough to prop up the entire moviegoing tent for several weeks or even months.
- What part of speech is tentpole movie?
- Tentpole movie is a noun.
- What is the plural of tentpole movie?
- The plural of tentpole movie is tentpole movies.
Words near tentpole movie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tentpole movie (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tentpole movie.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tentpole movie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tentpole_movie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.