Television movie

A television movie (also "TV movie", "TV-movie", "made-for-TV movie", etc.) is a photoplay that does not normally feature in movie theaters but is produced for, and released to, television only. It is commonly considered a type of movie, but some people restrict the latter term to those that do play in cinemas.

TV movies tend to be inexpensively produced and often feature B-actors or stars whose career is in decline. They are typically made by smaller crews and they rarely feature expensive special effects. Some TV movies are notoriously melodramatic, with soap opera style plots; typical plots associated with the genre include "disease of the week" movies, or films about domestic violence. The series of Moment of Truth Movies that run on the Lifetime cable network exemplify these melodramatic tendencies.

Often a successful series may spawn a TV movie sequel after ending its run, and TV movies may also be used as the first episode of a series, otherwise known as a pilot.

TV movies are often broadcast on major networks during sweeps season, or on cable networks that specialize in producing them such as HBO.

A variant is Direct-to-video movies.

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