Even after a movie’s release, its title isn’t set in stone. Whether it occurs a few weeks after its US release in order to appeal to foreign markets or years down the line "just ‘cause," studios have been known to change the titles of supremely popular films almost on a whim.
The name of a movie is the very first thing audience members will judge the film on, so it’s imperative that studios get it right. Between 2016’s Ghostbusters being confused with the original movie and George Lucas not being able to leave decades old movies alone, there’s a surprisingly dense history when it comes to movies having their names changed.
10 Ghostbusters (2016)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is an upcoming highly anticipated reboot, but it’s the second time in just a few short years that Columbia has tried to do something new with the franchise. 2016 saw the release of Ghostbusters, an all female reboot of the classic comedy series.
But for its physical and digital releases, the name of the movie was changed to Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. The move was clearly made to avoid confusion with the original movie, as they were both simply titled Ghostbusters. And it’s likely that everybody involved had gotten sick with people calling it "the Ghostbusters reboot."
9 Dead Alive (1992)
Though he’s best known for helming the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, Peter Jackson first got his start in the industry making horror movies. And arguably the most violent and gory of them all is Dead Alive, which had to have 10 minutes removed just so it could get an R-rating. The movie’s original title was Brain Dead, as that’s what it was called when it was first released in foreign markets. The reason why the movie has a different title in the US is simple, as there is another movie called Brain Dead, which has the rights to the original title.
8 The Road Warrior (1981)
Despite Mad Max being one of the most well-known characters in movie history, very few people in the US ever saw the first movie. So even though Mad Max 2 - the title that the movie was known by when it was released - was making millions overseas, there was a worry that the sequel wouldn’t make anything when it landed in multiplexes in the US.
And given that it even had “2” in the title, they thought nobody would watch a sequel to a movie they had never seen. The studio ingeniously renamed the movie The Road Warrior, with no hint that it was a sequel whatsoever.
7 Star Wars (1977)
Though it has been well documented about how much George Lucas messed with the efforts of the original Star Wars movies, he was tweaking things about the property long before then.
When the first movie in the series was first released back in 1977, it was simply called Star Wars, but after the two sequels came out not long after, Lucas renamed the original movie to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. And it doesn’t end there, as they have been changed yet again, since Disney has removed the Roman numerals from the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy.
6 Mighty Ducks (1992)
The Mighty Ducks franchise has had something of a comeback in recent months, as it now has a Disney+ series with some great callbacks. But before The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers' release, the series was a string of fun kids’ sports movies in the 1990s. And though many people might not know, the series actually has such a strange history with its titles.
In some territories, the name of first movie, The Mighty Ducks, was changed for VHS releases. Its title was changed to The Mighty Ducks Are The Champions, and the reason why is more absurd than the title. In many countries outside of the US, the second movie was called The Mighty Ducks, so the title of the first movie was changed to avoid confusion, even though it made everything even more confusing.
5 Fast Five (2011)
Being the movie in the Fast & Furious series that made the shift from street racing, Fast Five was a great name not just because it was the fifth instalment of the franchise, but because it represented the team of heist specialists too. However, a couple of months after its initial release, the movie’s title was changed to Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist. There has never been a specific reason as to why Universal decided to change the name, but it was obviously rebranding the film to appeal to more foreign markets.
4 Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)
Warner Bros. are seemingly building a reputation to make snap decisions when it comes to changing the titles of movies, as it happened not once, but twice with Edge of Tomorrow. Not only was the film originally called All You Need Is Kill, but it was changed to Live Die Repeat after its release too.
Though Edge of Tomorrow is one of Tom Cruise’s highest grossing movies, it still didn’t make the hundreds of millions that WB expected it to, and that’s what led people believing it was rebranded as Live Die Repeat in foreign markets after it’s US release. And though it’s a great movie, none of the titles do a "superb" job at delivering what the film is about.
3 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Raiders is a timeless masterpiece and perfect in almost every way, but that didn’t keep George Lucas from changing things in this franchise too. Years after its release, Lucas changed the name to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It isn’t clear as to why, but given how every following movie title in the series begins with Indiana Jones and…, chances are that Lucas wanted to keep everything uniform.
However, unlike with the Star Wars movies, the title card didn’t change in the movie itself. And though it’s complete speculation, that could be due to Steven Spielberg not allowing that to happen. But the updated name is still on the cover of most DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
2 Formula 51 (2001)
Everywhere outside of the US knows Formula 51 as The 51st State, and it’s only after the movie was released that the studio decided to change the name to what it’s currently known as in the US. The reason for the change was because the term “51st state” can have negative connotations in the US, referring to the control that the nation has over other territories. Even though the movie isn’t remotely related to the term’s meaning, as the 51st state in the movie refers to a drug concoction created that will send users in to the 51st state, it still required a name change.
1 Birds of Prey (2020)
When it was first released, the movie’s full title was Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Needless to say, that word salad didn’t exactly put butts in seats, and the movie was massively underperforming, especially considering that the last movie featuring Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad, made almost $750 million.
Warner Bros. chalked the whole underperformance up to the title, and made the too-little, too-late decision to change the name to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. The revised title makes much sense, as Birds of Prey is essentially led by Harley Quinn.
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