Tentpole Movie Meaning

(US, idiomatic, film) A major motion picture which is expensive to produce and which is expected to generate significant revenue for its producing studio and investors.

Example: 1995 August 11, Steve Persall, "Critic's Notebook: Previews whet our cinematic appetites," St. Petersburg Times, p. 6:
  United Artists hasn't prospered in recent years, so a box office hit from its tentpole movie franchise is essential.
2005 Dec. 3, Todd McCarthy, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," Variety (retrieved 28 Sep 2012):
  Just coincidentally, it also provides the opportunity for the sorts of extravagant computerized effects that create tentpole movie attractions these days.
2007 May 25, "The 1997 Summer Movie Review," Washington Times (retrieved 28 Sep 2012):
  The tentpole movie is an attraction popular and exploitable enough to prop up the entire moviegoing tent for several weeks or even months.
2009 April 1, Brian Stelter, "Piracy Puts Film Online One Month Before Open," New York Times (retrieved 28 Sep 2012):
  â€œWe'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.
2012 Feb. 14, "Guillermo del Toro to direct Emma Watson in “Beauty and the Beast”," IFC (retrieved 28 Sep 2012):
  Variety is reporting that del Toro will direct the flick with Watson cast as its titular Beauty. . . . So we’re thinking big tentpole movie versus introverted indie.