Steamer

[Bushwhacker]

I think I've read somewhere the word "steamer" in a same sense as "sleeper movie." That's to say meaning a movie that first becomes more or less unnoticed but that remains in theatres for some reason until it becomes kind of successful. Am I right? Have you read or been told on this particular meaning of "steamer" by chance?

As a matter of fact it is not easy to find anything about it on net but the idea is spinning around my head. Maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, do you know another way to express "sleeper" in English?

Thank You.

[BobK]

I think I've read somewhere the word "steamer" in a same sense that "sleeper movie." That's to say meaning a movie that first becomes more or less unnoticed but that remains in theatres for some reason until it becomes kind of successful. Am I right? Have you read or been told on this particular meaning of "steamer" by chance?

As a matter of fact it is not easy to find anything about it on net but the idea is spinning around my head. Maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, do you know another way to express "sleeper" in English?

Thank You.

In figurative English (excluding the obvious meaning of 'someone who's asleep') a sleeper can be a spy who's 'embedded' in a country for many years and is 'woken up' in order to carry out some act of espionage.

A play or movie or joke that takes a while to succeed is sometimes called 'a slow burner'. But I've never met 'steamer' used this way.

b