The alchemical process of transmuting the muse into money. The business, administrative, and promotional aspects of the creative life go here.
See also:Advertising Tropes,Characters and Casting,Fandom,Hocus Tropus,Movie-Making Index, andReception Dissonance.
Tropes
- 30-Day Free Trial
- Acclaimed Flop: A movie wasn't commercially successful, but still has critical acclaim.
- Adored by the Network: The network gives more airtime and promotion to the shows that the executives like better.
- Advertising by Association: Mentioning other popular works the creator(s) made in the advertising.
- After Show
- AMPTP
- Audience-Alienating Premise: A work fails to find an audience because its premise is widely considered to be too strange, boring, controversial, etc.
- Award Category Fraud
- Award Snub: A work doesn't win an award, but people feel that it should have.
- Backed by the Pentagon
- Billing Displacement: The work gives top billing to more well-known actors even though they are not in starring roles.
- Bland-Name Product
- Block Programming
- Bottle Episode: An episode that saves budget money by limiting the number of characters, backgrounds, etc. that can be used.
- Box-Office Bomb: A movie makes less money than its budget upon release.
- Brand X
- Breakthrough Hit
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Winning a game by spending real world currency.
- Cancellation: The network airing the show decides not to renew it for more episodes.
- Career Resurrection
- Cash-Cow Franchise: A franchise that continues production because it is very profitable for the company that owns it.
- Channel Hop: A television series ends up airing new episodes on a different channel. This also applies to works changing publishers and distributors.
- Colbert Bump: An obscure work gets more attention after being referenced in a more well-known work.
- Comedy Ghetto: Audiences lose interest in a work for focusing on comedy.
- Content Warnings: The work starts with a disclaimer warning the audience about the kind of content featured in the work.
- Contractual Obligation Project: The work is made because the people involved are contractually obligated to do so.
- Contractual Purity
- Controversy-Proof Image
- Costumes
- Couple Bomb: A work made by and starring a celebrity couple ends up being widely disliked.
- Cult Classic
- Dancing Bear: A unique aspect of a work of media that makes people want to consume it just so they can say they have.
- Demographics
- Digital Rights Management
- Don't Try This at Home: During scenes that feature imitable behavior, the audience is warned that they shouldn't copy what the characters are doing because they could hurt themselves.
- Drawing Board Hiatus
- Edited for Syndication: Reruns of a show have scenes cut from the episodes' original broadcasts.
- #EngineeredHashtag
- Executive Meddling: The executives force the creators to make changes to their work.
- Executive Veto: The executives say no to the creator's idea, forcing the creator to come up with a new concept that accomplishes what they want without upsetting the executives.
- Fan
- Fan Community Nicknames: Nicknames for specific fandoms.
- Fauxrrari
- Follow the Leader: Other works deliberately imitate a work that is proven to be successful.
- Follow-Up Failure
- Former Child Star: A person who used to be a celebrity as a child.
- Franchise Killer: The franchise installment that failed so badly it completely ended the franchise.
- Franchise Ownership Acquisition: The franchise changes hands from one owner to another.
- Franchise Zombie: The franchise keeps going long after the creator wanted it to end.
- Freemium: Free, but with abundant purchases required to get the full experience.
- From the Ashes: A fictional work's ending is the starting point of aSpin-Off.
- Funny Character, Boring Actor
- God Does Not Own This World: The creator does not own the rights to their work, so the company that does own the rights can continue production or reboot the work without the original creator's involvement or approval.
- Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Someone in show business is cynical about their occupation but enjoys the perks nonetheless.
- Hollywood Hype Machine
- International Coproduction: A work that is made by companies based in different countries.
- I Was Young and Needed the Money: It's revealed that a character was in a pornographic film when they were younger because they were that desperate for money.
- Late Export for You: A work isn't released overseas until well after its native release.
- Layout of a Season: The kindaStrictly Formula structuring of a show's seasons.
- Lead In
- Limey Goes to Hollywood
- Luvvies
- Lying Creator: The creator deliberately fibs about their work.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: Audiences and the creator have different opinions on what the creator's best work was.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: A mean character is played by an actor who is much nicer in real life.
- Media Classifications
- The Merch
- Merchandise-Driven: The main reason the show exists is to advertise merchandise.
- Microtransactions
- Midseason Replacement
- Misaimed Merchandising: A work has advertisements and merchandise that either contradict the work's intended message or come off as very odd to people who've actually seen the work being advertised or merchandised.
- Money, Dear Boy: They only got involved with the project so they'd get paid for their work.
- Murder Simulators
- Music Is Politics
- Network Death
- Network Decay: A network appears to have strayed from the kind of content it was originally founded to broadcast.
- Network Executives
- Network Finale: A channel about to go off the air goes out with a bang.
- Network Red-Headed Stepchild
- Network to the Rescue: A network picks up and renews a series that was cancelled by another network.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor
- No Budget
- No Export for You: A work that never gets released overseas.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: A work continues being popular in spite of bad press.
- Not Screened for Critics
- Now, Buy the Merchandise
- Obvious Second Choice
- One for the Money; One for the Art
- One Game for the Price of Two
- Only Barely Renewed
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope
- Outlived Its Creator: The franchise continues after the original creator died.
- Paying Their Dues
- Plagiarism
- Polish the Turd: Making something look better than it actually is.
- Presumed Flop
- Product Placement: The work features use and appearances of real life products.
- Promoted Fanboy: Someone who is a fan of the work ends up contributing to the franchise.
- Contest Winner Cameo: Someone wins a contest where their prize is a cameo appearance in the work.
- Running the Asylum: Fans end up being in charge and are now given free reign to make their ideas canon.
- Prop: Something an actor holds or physically interacts with in a production.
- Publicity Stunt Relationship
- Ratings
- Ratings Stunt
- Real Money Trade
- The Red Stapler: A work ends up increasing demand for a particular item.
- Renewed Before Premiere
- Rerun: Re-airing previously aired episodes.
- Revenue-Enhancing Devices
- Revival: A show that completed its run gets renewed for more episodes.
- Revival by Commercialization: A song becomes popular again after being used in modern media.
- Safe Harbor
- Screwed by the Lawyers: Production or distribution of a work is ceased or hindered by legal issues.
- Screwed by the Network: The show gets cancelled because the network didn't treat it well.
- Sequel Hook: A work features hints that a sequel may come up.
- Series Creator Shift
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll
- Showrunner
- Sleeper Hit
- So My Kids Can Watch: An actor agrees to appear in a work so their children can see them act.
- Spoil at Your Own Risk
- Sports Preemption
- Star-Making Role: The role that led to an actor's rise in prominence.
- Sweeps
- Tabloid Melodrama
- Target Audience: The intended viewers of a piece of media.
- Technical Advisor
- Theatre Is True Acting: The notion that stage acting is superior to screen acting.
- Timeshift Channel: An affiliate channel of a particular network that shows a delayed feed, or content for a specific niche.
- Transatlantic Equivalent
- TV Strikes
- Unions in Hollywood
- Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise: The work is aimed at all audiences, but the merchandise is only targeted at one gender.
- Vacation, Dear Boy: A creator takes part in a work purely so they can enjoy the travel that comes with it.
- Vanity Project
- Viewers Like You
- Viral Marketing
- Wag the Director: The cast makes demands that must be met if they're going to act in the work.
- Watershed
- Writing Around Trademarks: Avoiding lawsuits by never directly referring to copyrighted material by name.
