popcorn movie

plural popcorn movies

1. idiomaticbroadcastingA motion picture without serious dramatic content, a weighty message, or intellectual depth, which serves simply as enjoyable entertainment.

   Ah well, it's a pure popcorn movie, so what do you expect? Drop Zone doesn't tax many brain cells, but it does keep the pulse pounding right to the end.

   1994 December 9, “Review: Drop Zone Unbelievable, Unpretentious and Great Fun”, in News Tribune, retrieved 29 Oct 2011

   2 more examples

   Spielberg calls Minority Report the most cynical film he will have made—but yes, it has a happy ending, he says, and yes, it's a popcorn movie, "but a gourmet popcorn movie."

   1999 February 14, Stephen J. Dubner, “Steven the Good”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   As a movie, The Day After Tomorrow is your classic computer-generated cinematic confection, only the bad guy isn't an alien or a giant lizard, it's global warming. That gives Tomorrow a lot more political heft than your average popcorn movie.

   2004 May 17, Lev Grossman, “Hollywood's Global Warming”, in Time, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2011