n. A play or movie that many people see only because they feel it has a certain intellectual cachet, or because they feel that doing so would impress other people.
2003
Since Midnight's Children clocks in at three-and-a-quarter hours, the absence of any variation in tone makes for a very exhausting experience.
It's hard to imagine why the [Royal Shakespeare Company] has squandered its precious resources on such folie de grandeur. In the programme notes we're told that this play is partly based on a five-episode, 290-minute television adaptation that Rushdie did of his own book, a project that the BBC wisely decided to abandon in 1999. The only thing I can think of is that the RSC is hoping for a 'snob hit'.
It's hard to imagine why the [Royal Shakespeare Company] has squandered its precious resources on such folie de grandeur. In the programme notes we're told that this play is partly based on a five-episode, 290-minute television adaptation that Rushdie did of his own book, a project that the BBC wisely decided to abandon in 1999. The only thing I can think of is that the RSC is hoping for a 'snob hit'.
1987 (earliest)
The first television review to come in called Les Miserables 'a snob-hit — the kind of show that must be seen and cheered although in your heart you know it's hollow'.
The insistence on trying for the Snob Hit and importing wave after wave of English special material is just one more reason why American writing talent is shying clear of Broadway.