Potboiler

A potboiler or pot-boiler is a novel, play, opera, film, or other creative work of low quality whose main purpose is to pay for the creator's daily expenses, reflected in the phrase to boil the pot, which means to provide one's livelihood. Authors who create potboiler novels or screenplays are sometimes called hack writers or hacks. Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called pulp fiction, and potboiler films may be called popcorn movies.