noun

• 1A conventional ending in a film, typically regarded as sentimental or simplistic and often featuring an improbably positive outcome.

  ‘They must wait a bit longer for their classical Hollywood ending.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Whether her story will have a Hollywood ending isn't clear just yet.’
  • ‘Inevitable Hollywood ending aside, Bad Santa doesn't stray too far from its black comedy roots.’
  • ‘The surprising absence of a Hollywood ending makes this film a lot more than a light-hearted romantic classic.’
  • ‘She dazzled the world with her debut in the sleeper hit "Slumdog Millionaire" but now forget the Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘What doesn't sit right after listening to Capote's original, though, is the Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘Shame about the silly (and historically inaccurate) Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘I did think Marcie and Greg were going to get together in the closing scenes but thankfully we were spared the sunset Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘America's worst nightmare is they are now in those movies that always have a Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘Of course, Gough refuses to end things with a clichéd and sappy Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘The picture ultimately, with a wink and a nudge, gives us the antithesis of the Coen film - a Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘But there would be no Hollywood ending with the good guys defeating the bad guys.’
  • ‘The end result is a frustrating film that trades a strange-but-true history of government-sanctioned weirdness for a Hollywood ending dripping with an anti-war message.’
  • ‘But it will not conclude with the predictable, upbeat Hollywood ending.’
  • ‘Ultimately, Chuck and Buck backs away from its own darkness, supplying a surprisingly Hollywood ending to this most un-Hollywood of movies.’
  • ‘Whatever that movie was, it didn't have more of a Hollywood ending than this book does.’
  • ‘So are the producers tying up the loose ends, by putting a Hollywood ending onto our beloved sitcom.’
  • ‘The largest departures are the Hollywood ending, and the whole romance between the two leads.’
  • ‘It flirts with a heightened realism read: depressed characters that proves disingenuous, as the movie breaks right for the Hollywood ending at first opportunity.’

  1. 1.1An improbably fortunate or happy outcome to a real-life situation.
     ‘his first 100 days as governor could still have a Hollywood ending’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Cliff and his parents had never been close, so we couldn't expect some sort of Hollywood ending’
     • ‘The word we're getting from his office is, don't expect some Hollywood ending.’
     • ‘Unfortunately, the plaintiffs' business venture did not have a happy Hollywood ending.’
     • ‘Whether her story will have a Hollywood ending isn't clear just yet.’
     • ‘Miracle, indeed: Martin St. Louis and the Lightning are hoping for a Hollywood ending to their Stanley Cup run.’
     • ‘That kind of nail-biting finish is about as close to a Hollywood ending as Ulster is ever likely to get.’
     • ‘And the result was a truly Hollywood ending to one of the most extraordinary political melodramas in American history.’
     • ‘Announcing the completion of the campaign in the Hollywood Hills, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's governor, said it was "the Hollywood ending we hoped for".’
     • ‘Because for the American interests involved in 1950s Cuba, neither the facts nor the fiction had a Hollywood ending.’
     • ‘The private-equity funds are hoping for a Hollywood ending, although the picture is looking dark now as DVDs continue to siphon off moviegoers.’
     • ‘However, the Hollywood ending just didn't happen, as the Yanks lost the World Series to … the Astros.’
     • ‘If the Kings somehow make it to the Cup final, it would be a Hollywood ending.’