Movies with different names Internationally (1 Viewer)

I've always wondered why some films are released under different names on the International Market. A few examples in the past couple of years:

13 Going on 30 - Suddenly 30
The Rundown - Welcome to the Jungle
Saving Silverman - Evil Woman
Joy Ride - Roadkill

At first I thought it was a film with a similar title is being released around the same time but I doubt something like 13 Going on 30 is coming out soon. I also noticed that most of the renamed titles are usually the Working Title of a film.

This is very common everywhere. I know it happens all the time in Israel, where I have a lot of family. Sometimes it makes sense if the title doesn't quite translate directly into a foreign language, but changing the name for another English-speaking market seems a bit weird.

Then there's the occasional movie that doesn't have its name translated, but should, with perhaps the primary example being The 400 Blows. It does mean something fairly specific in French, from what I understand, maybe "raising hell," but it obviously means nothing at all in English. And although the changed name is usually worse than the original, there are also happy exceptions to that--one of my favorite Kurosawa movies was "Spider's Web Castle" in Japanese, an OK title, but not nearly as cool as the awesome "Throne of Blood." Maybe your observation explains why the changed title is so often worse, Nick--they're going with an earlier or working title, even though they were able to come up with a better one over time.

Another example is "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". In overseas markets it had a four-minute prologue tacked onto the start of the film (compiled from II and III), followed by the film as we know it, but it was titled "The Voyage Home: Star Trek IV" for the overseas markets.

Peter Jackson's splatter film Braindead is called Dead Alive in the US.

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is known, in France, as QUATRE GARCONS DANS LE VENT aka "FOUR BOYS ON THE WIND".

I hope that makes at least some sense in French.

Bend It like Beckham was called "Kick It like Beckham" in Germany and "Jugando con el destino" in Argentina, which translates as "Playing with Destiny."

The Ref with Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary is called Hostile Hostages in the UK for some reason

Airplane! / Flying High
Spaceship / The Creature Wasn't Nice
The Road Warrior / Mad Max 2

The Order is known as Sin Eater in the UK.

The Road Warrior is the US title for Mad Max 2.

If I remember correctly, The Draughtsman's Contract was renamed Death in an English Garden in France. This was a deliberate reference to an earlier French film, Death in a French Garden, which shared a similarity in an aspect of the plot.


Brits wouldn't have a clue what 'Hoosiers' meant (it's the nickname for people from a certain part of the country, isn't it?).

Yup. People from Indiana.

Yah, hicks like me and Seth Paxton

Well, yeah, of course there's that, but then it would have been a very different kind of movie! It is one of those movies where if there was a porno take-off of it (and I don't even want to think about what that would consist of), they wouldn't have to change the title at all.

In fact, at the time Truffaut's movie came out, the phrase didn't have any sort of meaning in Brit slang. Ditto 'head'. Both are fairly recent additions to Brit slang.

The first time I was aware of this issue was when I learned the film released in NZ as California Man was actually Encino Man.

Having just arrived back from holiday in Australia, I was surprised to see 13 Going On 30 was called Suddenly 30 in Austrlia. Especially since we had it in NZ under its original title. (Plus, I just think 13 Going On 30 is a better title.)

Doesnt changing a movies title often have something to do with avoiding any kind of bad publicity? A film with little or no commercial success in its country of origin could be slipped in under a different name and make some money before people figure out whats going on?

In 13 Going on 30 (Suddenly 30 here in Australia) i think that would make perfect sense. Dreadfully lame film.