I was reading a Variety article about a Fox reporter who reviewed a pirated version of the new Wolverine movie when I spotted a funny use of a familiar word.
Friedman posted a review of the film Thursday, one day after an incomplete version of the tentpole was leaked on the Internet, a breach that occurred a month before the film’s release and that could potentially cost the studio millions in box office receipts.
That’s a new to me take on that word, so I checked the usual sources. UrbanDictionary’s definition is what my inner 10 year old would expect. Wikipedia offers up the movie bidness definition of the term as used above:
In the world of motion pictures and television programming, a tent pole is a production which, with heavy promotion, and probably carrying a large investment, is expected to hold up (as is the function of a tent pole) and balance out the performance of a movie studio or television network. An example of this strategy in television is to schedule a popular program alongside new or unknown programming, in an attempt to keep viewers watching after the flagship program is over. In the movie business, tent poles are sometimes widely released initial offerings in a string of releases and are expected by studios to turn a profit in a short period of time. When the production fails to meet expectations it can be said that the “tent pole has flopped”.
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