tent pole
n.— «A studio like Fox usually works on dozens of DVD’s at a time—from minor television shows to $100 million-plus “tent poles” meant to draw everyone in and that entail a marketing blitz mapped out long beforehand.» —“Box Office in a Box” by Jon Gertner New York Times Nov. 14, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
Trivia time! Where in the United States can you visit Soda City? If you answered Columbia, South Carolina, you’re right! This nickname apparently derives from an old practice of abbreviating Columbia as Cola. The locals then referred to the town as...
What a cool resource this is! My biography of Truk Lagoon’s Kimiuo Aisek is coming out soon, and Titanic co-producer Al Giddings is writing the foreword (correct, not forward!). He buzzed me to send him my thoughts on ‘tent-pole events’ to be included in what he writes. I never worked for Fox Studios. I’m just a scuba diver! I taught college writing for 18 years, love words, but had never heard this term. Had to Google rather than embarrass myself in the eyes of “Super Shooter” Al Giddings — the name Kimiuo Aisek gave him after Al named Kimiuo “Big Shooter!”