not so much

[navi tasan]

1) They make artistic movies, not so much commercial ones.

Do they make commercial movies at all?
Are some of their movies are both artistic and commercial?

How does 'not so much' differ from 'not'?
2) They make artistic movies, not commercial ones.

Gratefully,
Navi

 

[Tarheel]

Do you mean their movies don't make much money?

I could decide what you mean to say better if I had more context.

 

[slevlife]

Although more context would help, the meaning of "not so much" is clear, assuming it was said by a fluent speaker. It means that the movies they make are artistic but generally not commercial. In other words, "not so much" is referring back to the same movies that were already mentioned.

The phrase "not so much" is informal.

See: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/not-so-much

Note that the use of "commercial" is ambiguous here without more context. It probably refers to making money but it could have other connotations.

How does 'not so much' differ from 'not'?

In this case, I would read "not so much" as "generally not" or "less so." In other words, it is a softer "not" that might allow for their movies being mildly commercial, or perhaps a few of their movies have been somewhat more commercial than their norm.

 

[jutfrank]

How does 'not so much' differ from 'not'?

By degree.

The idea of not so much is that there are degrees of 'commercialness'. Their movies are generally low in degree of commercialness.

What the speaker really means by this, we'd need more context to understand with confidence.