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Came across a sentence here:

Unlike most blockbuster confection, the success of Bond depends on relevancy

If I am not mistaken, confection is a count noun. Shouldn't it be "unlike most blockbuster confections"?

On a different note, I also find the use of "relevancy" strange, where a simple "relevance" would do.

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  • I am indeed aware of a previous discussion on "relevancy". english.stackexchange.com/questions/230461/…
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 5:31
  • Confection can be used as a noncount noun. A sort-of synonym you could substitute directly here is "cotton candy" (aka "candy floss", I think).
    – The Photon
    Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 5:33
  • Your "relevancy" issue needs to be asked in a separate question.
    – user3169
    Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 6:53
  • Actually I provided a link to a discussion on ELU in a comment to show that the "relevancy" part is a comment, not a question.
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 17:00

2 Answers 2

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See confection:

  1. a product or work having a frivolous, whimsical, or contrived effect.

It would be non-count because it is a style or type of film rather than referring to specific films.

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  • 2
    But according to Oxford, "1.1 An elaborately constructed thing, especially a frivolous one." It's still like a count noun if you look into those examples in this link: en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/confection
    – dan
    Commented Nov 17, 2017 at 7:18
  • Substitute a different categorization: "unlike most blockbuster junk food" or "unlike most blockbuster nonsense" or "unlike most blockbuster fluff". They are not referring to a specific list of movies but rather, as noted, a category or label.
    – AlannaRose
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 5:47
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The OP is correct, this should be "confections". A "blockbuster confection" here is a specific film, a member of the category, not the category as a whole. Thus "confection" acts here as a countable noun, and should agree in number.

Note that the illustrative quote under sense 4 is

the play was merely an ingenious confection

and the use of "an" indicates use as a countable (not count) noun.

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