I’d classify the movie as “good” but that’s a pretty excellent example. The movie was a bomb in part because the title told the audience nothing. Technically it meets Requirement 3 in that it has a reference to a source material, but even that’s half assed, since it’s the name of the vessel, not the show, and the show wasn’t very popular.
Also mentioned and a classic example is “Cloverfield.”
Of course, a movie CAN overcome a bad title, if the movie itself is so amazing that the title becomes its own thing. Apocalypse Now, The French Connection, Schindler’s List (which, granted, is a better title than the source material’s title, Schindler’s Ark) and Rain Man are all mediocre titles but you don’t think of that anymore because they were movies that made their own reputation.
To my mind the best-named movie of all time is Aliens. Sums it up, refers to the original movie, tells anyone who saw the original what they’re in for, and rather than just calling it “Alien 2” is an unusual and clever title for a sequel.
Bad movies with good titles abound, of course:
The Smurfs - Obviously connection to popular source material
Hop - Thematic, catchy, clever.
8 Heads In a Duffel Bag - Funny, catchy.
Bad titles: Argo, Brave, Prometheus, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall, Ted, Zero Dark Thirty
Uncertain: Django Unchained
Good: The Dark Knight Rises, Hotel Transylvania, Wrath of the Titans
Or “Knight and Day”. Gah, that title alone was a turn off
I think companies are totally overthinking this. Kids are not going to ask mom and day to see a random movie they know nothing about. As such, a non-descriptive title doesn’t seem like as much of a detriment than an adult oriented movie. How many kids walked into the theater knowing nothing except the title to that movie? I’m sure they all knew it was about a girl with long hair and a prince and a talking horse
Honestly, how many adults are really going to see a movie just knowing the title? Bad titles might not attract attention, but I’m not going to a movie blind just going “Well, it sounds interesting from just the title.”
Apparently, and I didn’t know this, there are a number of adults who have told me they simply want to see a movie and go to the theaters to see what’s playing. For them, the titles are about the only thing they go by. I hear that and think its the exact opposite with kids, who find a movie they want to watch no matter the title and beg their parents to take them. That’s why I think a bad title for a kids movie doesn’t matter
I can think of two TV show titles that instantly spring to mind.
Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 was a very funny show with a very bad title. It’s too long, and they actually had to censor it in advertisements and even in the show’s opening credits.
Game of Thrones is an excellent title for the show. Much better than A Song of Ice and Fire, which always reminds me of the band Earth, Win & Fire. To derail even farther into book titles, A Game of Thrones, **A Clash of Kings **and A Storm of Swords are all pretty good book titles.
First thing I thought of was Lucky Number Slevin (like the title and love the movie). In French speaking areas - I have heard - they just called it Slevin because the pun didn’t work.
Thanks for this. Excellent book and one of the few movies that have stayed with me for years afterward.
snip
The title was changed for American audiences because it was felt that they wouldn’t know what the Philosopher’s Stone was.
Everyone who didn’t know that raise your hands… no one huh?
Good Titles:
Die Hard
Goodfellas
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
Bad Titles
First Knight
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (great line but utterly misused here)
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
Blade Runner (excellent film though)
It bugs me when people complain about the re-titling of Harry Potter. Hindsight being 20/20, we know that it was a massively gigantic hit that pretty much single-handledly cured childhood illiteracy, made infinity money, etc. But at the time, it was just a book that was maybe kinda popular in England. No one ever quite knows what makes something a huge hit, but it certainly has something to do with something achieving some kind of critical mass and then ballooning from there via word of mouth, etc.
Might it be the case that if HP had kept its original title, it would have been a flop or a minor success at best? Certainly. And sure, everyone reading this thread on this message board has heard of the philosopher’s stone… but we’re a very specifically self-selected group of people not at all necessarily representative of the populace as a whole.
I think that it was an entirely reasonable decision, given the information available at the time.
I actually turned down an invitation to see Argo because I thought it was some generic animated kids’ flick. On the other hand, Zero Dark Thirty was a great title – sounds dark and suspenseful, and it gives you an idea of what the movie is like even if you don’t know what it’s about.
A title which I find annoyingly feeble and non-attention-catching, is “The Train” (the one about the fleeing Nazis trying to make off out of Paris, with numerous priceless paintings). My irritation is I think in some way, connected with my being a railfan; and more generally: the individual train concerned, is one for a unique purpose, in a highly unusual situation – re all of which, I feel that the title tells one absolutely zero. If it’s meant to sound gritty and blunt – to me, it just seems weak and “nothing”.
In mitigation: at the time of the film’s release (mid-1960s), I gather that there was a big vogue for making films with similarly laconic titles: “The [‘whatever’]” – with the second word preferably a monosyllable.
Bad titles: Our Children, The Artist and the Model, We’re the Millers
Uncertain: Jug Face (The plot centers on a demonic power worshiped by an isolated rural community that offers health and protection in exchange for human sacrifices, identified when their faces materialize on ceramic jugs. Bloody chaos ensues when the newest victim is hidden from the monster.) Not one I’m going to see, but the name is accurately descriptive.