art house

[ ahrt hous ]

noun

1. a movie theater specializing in the exhibition of art films.

art house

noun

1. a cinema which specializes in showing films which are not part of the commercial mainstream

adjective

1. 1. of or relating to such films or a cinema which specializes in showing them
   2. ( as modifier )

      the surprise art-house hit of the season

Word History and Origins

Origin of art house¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

CGI-heavy spectaculars tend to dominate conversations about the state of the movie business, but there are a whole slew of indies and art house fare on the horizon that are worth seeking out when available.

From Time

Both enjoyed successful runs at off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre, a more modest and, in that sense, conventional venue for these kinds of art house projects.

From Washington Post

No sooner do critics and art house dwellers discover an edgy new voice, it seems, than it is immediately co-opted by the great flattening force of Big Comic Book.

From Washington Post

But all the studios like Paramount that do art house films passed on it.

From The Daily Beast

There was an art house in the town way upstate in New York where I was teaching and I went to every movie that opened there.

From The Daily Beast

I think Waiting for ‘Superman’ played to a pretty sophisticated art-house audience.

From The Daily Beast

Except that it was published by little-known Minneapolis art-house company Coffee House Press.

From The Daily Beast

[Laughs] Much to the dismay of my agent at the time, I was choosing some curious art-house films.

From The Daily Beast