Engineering:Tent-pole (entertainment)
In broadcast programming and motion pictures, a tent-pole or tentpole is a program or film that supports the financial performance of a film studio, television network, or cinema chain. It is an analogy for the way a strong central pole provides a stable structure to a tent. A tent-pole film may be expected to support the sale of tie-in merchandise.
Types
In the film industry, 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. Such programming is often accompanied by larger budgets and heavy promotion.[1] A tentpole movie, for example, is a film that is expected to support a wide range of ancillary tie-in products such as toys and games.[2]
Examples
An example of this strategy in television is to schedule a popular television program alongside new or unknown programming, in an attempt to keep audience viewers watching after the flagship program is over; a prominent example is the long-running Star Trek series.[3] A related concept is the hammock: in broadcast programming, if a network has two tent-pole series, it can boost the performance of a weak or emerging show by inserting it between the two tent-poles.[4]
See also
- Aftershow
- Audience flow
- Blockbuster (entertainment)
- Event movie
- Four-quadrant movie
- List of highest-grossing films
References
- ↑ "Rise of the Blockbuster". BBC News. 2001-11-16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1653733.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ↑ Plastic Reality: Special Effects, Art and Technology in 1970s U.S. Filmmaking, Julie A. Turnock, ProQuest, 2008. p. 236
- ↑ Teitelbaum, Sheldon (1991-05-05). "How Gene Roddenberry and his Brain Trust Have Boldly Taken 'Star Trek' Where No TV Series Has Gone Before : Trekking to the Top". Los Angeles Times: pp. 16. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151106201722/http://articles.latimes.com/print/1991-05-05/magazine/tm-2100_1_star-trek. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
- ↑ "Michael Dann, TV Programmer, Dies at 94; Scheduled Horowitz and Hillbillies". The New York Times. 31 May 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/business/media/michael-dann-tv-programmer-who-scheduled-horowitz-and-hillbillies-dies-at-94.html.
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