Do you remember that Shaft movie Samuel L. Jackson made back in 2000? I saw it in the theater and have never seen it again.
Yeah, so he has made a sequel to it.
**First movie title: Shaft
Sequel title: Shaft
**
Identical titles, but the new one is a direct sequel to the one from 2000.
Has this happened before?
Note: Technically, the 2000 one was a sequel to Shaft from 1971, but it was more of a new beginning/reboot thing, which shouldn’t count. This 2019 one is a direct sequel to the 200 one and has the same title.
I know you asked for movies, but I’ll mention that the first four* Peter Gabriel solo albums were all titled “Peter Gabriel”.
Geffen Records wanted to name the fourth album “Security”, against Gabriel’s wishes. The compromise was that “Security” appeared on the record label and on a sticker on the shrink wrap, but does not actually appear anywhere on the album cover.
I can’t imagine a lot of entries in this category. Generally people try to distinguish the sequel from the original with some change in the title, however minimal (Aliens as sequel to Alien) because, you know, otherwise people don’t realizer it’s a new movie. It doesn’t get properly positioned when you release it on video, etc. Usually, the same title means a remake. For a reason.
That said, we’ve had a couple of cases in recent years where people have apparently suffered from “Roman Numeral Exhaustion”, so they dispense with the numerals that distinguished them. The first case I know of was Jaws, the Revenge (instead of Jaws IV). The title’s not identical, but close.
Much closer were Star Trek (The Motion Picture) (1979) and Star Trek (2009). Probably the closest I’m going to come.
You also had Rocky (1976) and its fifth sequel, Rocky Balboa (2006), the first case of “Roman Numeral Fatigue” in the series, following Rocky V. Not exactly the same, but close enough.