Sitting here with Oprah on in the background - why yes, I am entirely too lazy to get the remote off the couch to change the channel - and a commercial for *The Great Debaters* comes on. Now, I’m sure this is a perfectly good film with a wonderful cast and a redeeming moral theme, but could there possibly be a worse title for it? It is very descriptive, which I suppose is nice, but I have to think that this title will scare away ticket buyers en masse. Something completely nonsensical would probably up the box office draw just on curiosity alone. I mean, it’s Debate! Is the average moviegoer expected to get excited about this?
Anyways, I’m wondering what other films out there were killed before they had a chance by an awful title?
Maybe to give this thread a different direction than last month’s, some of the Great Minds here at the SDMB could suggest improved titles to the ones that were actually used. I say this because I’ve been trying hard to come up with a better title than “The Great Debaters” and can’t come up with one.
Ha, you’re talking about the same movie we tried to go see on Christmas night, but it was sold out. Denzel Washington directed and stars in it, and it’s a) him playing a good guy after having just played a psychopathic gangster, and b) an uplifting, intelligent movie geared toward African Americans, but of interest to everybody who likes uplifting, intelligent movies. What’s wrong with the title being descriptive? It lays out exactly what the movie is about, which is better than most movie titles.
Maybe they’re not after the “average” moviegoer and are aiming for something higher.