tentpole
noun
tent·pole
ˈtent-ˌpōl 
: a big-budget movie whose earnings are expected to compensate the studio for its less profitable movies
Examples of tentpole in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Ordinarily, a bigger tentpole like a Marvel project tends to kickstart summer movie season in the first weekend of May — and, indeed, Deadpool and Wolverine was once slated for that May 3 release date but was delayed to late July due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023.
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Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 31 May 2024
Meanwhile, outside the billionaire bubble, the delays, particularly of big-budget tentpole movies, scrambled this summer’s slate and left theaters in the lurch.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2024
Verdict: An Emotional Trip to Hell and Back Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II isn’t a titanic tentpole holding up Xbox’s shifting business plan.
—PCMAG, 21 May 2024
But OpenAI’s use of a Johannson soundalike does fit into a larger pattern of the company scraping from pop culture tentpoles in order to strengthen its products.
—Andrew R. Chow, TIME, 21 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for tentpole 
Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 31 May 2024
Meanwhile, outside the billionaire bubble, the delays, particularly of big-budget tentpole movies, scrambled this summer’s slate and left theaters in the lurch.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2024
Verdict: An Emotional Trip to Hell and Back Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II isn’t a titanic tentpole holding up Xbox’s shifting business plan.
—PCMAG, 21 May 2024
But OpenAI’s use of a Johannson soundalike does fit into a larger pattern of the company scraping from pop culture tentpoles in order to strengthen its products.
—Andrew R. Chow, TIME, 21 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for tentpole
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tentpole.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Tentpole.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tentpole. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
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