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B-movie

American  
[bee-moo-vee] / ˈbiˌmu vi /

noun

  1. a low-budget movie made especially to accompany a major feature film on a double bill.


B-movie British  

noun

  1. a film originally made (esp in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s) as a supporting film, now often considered as a genre in its own right

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of B-movie

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

A re-recorded Rock Lobster became a minor hit, followed by similarly danceable, subtly transgressive, B-movie party classics like Dance This Mess Around, Give Me Back My Man and Mesopotamia.

From BBC Mar. 17, 2026

All in good fun for a B-movie, and “P: B” does not pretend to be anything else.

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 6, 2025

Among his contemporaries was Ed Meese, a recurring figure in the conservative movement and a close ally of a certain B-movie actor turned archconservative governor of California: Ronald Reagan.

From Slate Oct. 21, 2025

Qualley plays the detective in a way that attracts the audience with all of the scuzz of a classic, shot-on-video B-movie.

From Salon Aug. 23, 2025

‘It makes you look like an alien in a B-movie.’

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd

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