Page 1 of Why do studios release films under different titles?

I borrowed "Saving Silverman" R1 off a mate about six months ago, quite a good comedy, but could have been better considering the cast. Anyway I saw an advert on T.V the other day for "Evil Woman" at Cinemas Now, and was sure I`d seen it before before realising that it was "Saving Silverman" renamed!

Why do they do this? And why change to such a crappy title? (I`m no marketing expert, but even I could have come up with a more appealing title!)

What other films has this happened to? (I know about Harry Potter different label.)

Encino Man was released in this country under the title `California Man` apparently cos not many people over here would`ve known where Encino was.

And The Madness of King George was originally meant to be The Madness of King III (the name of the original play), but was renamed to just `The Madness of King George` because American film goers wouldn`t want to go and see it because they might`ve felt they missed the first two installments.
But I think thats bull meself!

Thats actually absolutely true about The Madness of King George. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was renamed Sorcerers Stone because they didn`t think Americans would understand what it mean`t.

I`m not sure whether Americans really are as dumb as movie executives think they are, but it does appear to me that the US movie industry and media in general doesn`t want to educate its citizens properly in case it loses sales out of it.

Its the same with the jackie chan movies.They seem to be re-released
every year under a different title.
nilesh

See [http://www.snopes2.com/movies/films/george.htm] for the truth about "The Madness of King George".

As for Harry Potter, the American publisher of the book Scholastic decided to change the name from Philosopher`s stone to Sorcerer`s stone, long before there was a movie in the offing, for thier own reasons. The consensus on Notes & Querries[http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-18387,00.html] seems to be that the word Sorcerer has magical connotations which the word Philosopher doesn`t. The different context of the word "Philosopher" when placed next to the word "Stone" seems to have escaped the American publishers.

Reindeer Games had it`s european release name changed to Deception, i think it was because studio execs didn`t think people would want to see a film called Reindeer Games in July after it`s xmas US release.

`See [http://www.snopes2.com/movies/films/george.htm] for the truth about "The Madness of King George".`......

The truth???
Written by an American??
Like they`re gonna say `Oh okay, it`s true, we ARE a bit too dense`!!

I`ve heard there were problems with Branagh`s Henry V as well.

`Dr Doolittle 3` is going to be renamed `Bag o` s***e 3` for it`s UK release. I`ve already started queuing at my local nastyplex.

Why was Leon renamed the professional in America. Did they think americans would get it confused with leon the pig farmer or something.
And why was Mad max 2 renamed the road warrior

This item was edited on Thursday, 17th January 2002, 19:13