Hannah Riley
People in the United States can sometimes forget that people in other countries enjoy American movies too and have to make changes to them to better suit their audiences. Sometimes scenes are cut or more culturally appropriate lines are added, but in this case, movie titles were changed entirely to suit different audiences.
There are countless examples of movie titles being changed, but The Sixth Sense has one of the most famous plot twists of all time that stunned audiences. The people who weren’t stunned were audiences in China where the movie was titled, “He’s A Ghost!” Talk about a spoiler!
1. Home Alone
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
The change in titles isn’t clear, but it could have been related to the recent terror attacks in the UK at the time of release.
3. The Hangover
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Annie Hall
6. Harry and the Hendersons
UK distributors decided that renaming the movie with “Bigfoot” in the title would make it more clear to audiences what the movie was about. There was later a Harry and the Hendersons show in the UK which used the American title because audiences already knew who Harry was.
7. The Peanuts Movie
The United Kingdom distributors of the Peanuts movie wanted to change the title to have a stronger association with the characters.
8. Leon
9. Live Free or Die Hard
10. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
White Castle is only an American franchise and foreign distributors thought audiences might not understand or be interested. They replaced “go to White Castle” with “get the munchies.”
11. The Shawshank Redemption
12. Pretty Woman
13. Snatch
14. The Avengers
‘The Avengers’ is the name of a popular British TV show from 1961-1969 so distributors wanted to change the movie title to ‘Avengers Assemble’ to separate them.
15. Neighbors
The longest running soap opera in Australia is named ‘Neighbours,’ and distributors changed the name to not confuse audiences. This soap opera is where celebrities like Russell Crowe, Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth, and Natalie Imbruglia got their start.
16. Fever Pitch
Fever Pitch was actually an American adaptation of a 1997 British movie with the same name. The movie was about soccer, but the American version changed it to baseball. It was renamed to separate it from the 1997 movie.
17. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
JK Rowling wanted to change the name from Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s stone to make it seem more magical for American children who might not know what philosopher means.
18. Airplane
In Australia and New Zealand, the name was changed from Airplane to Flying High because there was another American movie named ‘Airport 80’ set t be released at the same time.
19. 13 Going On 30
The name “13 going on 30” was changed to “Suddenly 30′ in Australia because the expression ‘going on’ isn’t common in Australia and was thought that audiences might misunderstand the title.
20. Zootopia
The name Zootopia became Zootropolis for UK audiences ‘to have a unique name that works for UK audiences’ as told by. a Disney spokesperson.
21. Hoosiers
Even though some American’s don’t know what a Hoosier is, many might have a general idea that it involves Indiana and basketball. UK and Australian distributors changed the name to Best Shot after learning this reference isn’t known outside of the United States.
22. Breaking Bad
23. The Sandlot
There isn’t much reasoning behind this title change outside of the possibility of wanting to show Australian audiences that this movie was for kids.
24. The Mighty Ducks
Australian distributors decided to rename The Mighty Ducks “Champions” for marketing reasons. Although the new title is definitely a spoiler, the new title was less confusing. They believed that audiences might think the movie was about ducks.
25. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
