A potboiler or pot-boiler is a novel, play, opera, film, or other creative work of low quality whose main purpose is to pay for the creator's daily expenses—thus the imagery of "boil the pot", which means "to provide one's livelihood." Authors who create potboiler novels or screenplays are sometimes called hack writers or hacks. Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called pulp fiction, and potboiler films may be called "popcorn movies".

If a serious playwright or novelist's creation is deemed a potboiler, this has a negative connotation that suggests that it is a mediocre or inferior work.