Sold American
Interesting story in the LA Times about naming films. I often wonder how much titles make a difference in the gross. My guess is less than the "experts" think--I think the movie makes the title. It'd be easy enough to check. Just release a major film under two different titles in two comparable cities.
In accompanying captions only available in the paper copy, they compare successful titles versus unsuccessful ones by using after-the-fact justifications. One of their examples is the hit American Gangster, where they say: "American" plus almost anything sounds cool. See also American Graffiti, American Splendor, etc.
Actually, "American" can lend a generic feel to the title (plus may not play well overseas). In 1992 we had American Heart and American Me. Remember either? American Gangster--which will not be long remembered anyway--was a hit because it had a great trailer and two major stars. American Splendor (a minor indie success at best) is an ironic title taken from Harvey Pekar's comic, and doesn't really say much about the film. Oddest of all, they bring up American Graffiti, a gigantic hit, but one of the most confusing and misleading titles of all time, which George Lucas had to fight to keep. If it hadn't been the early 70s, he probably would have lost that fight.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:34 AM
3 Comments:
Its hard to see to see how titles could help a movie other by avoiding hurting it. I remember people saying the film, "Lorenzo's Oil" about a child dying from a rare disease while his parents fought for a cure (the noted "oil") was hurt by not having a more feelgood title (Maybe Lifetime and Hallmark have taken them all).
The one other example I can think is where the very interesting but probably too controversial for the time "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" was replaced by the bland anodyne near meaningless, "About Last Night." Actually maybe that title change made sense because the original title would have promised an edginess (not to mention actual perversity) that the dumbed-down film didn't deliver. (Of course, I saw the original play not that long ago and I'm not sure its that edgy either- but maybe it was 20-25 years ago).
Lorenzo's Oil (or so the conventional wisdom would have it) is a disastrously bad title because it's confusing, doesn't describe what the film is about and isn't in the least enticing.
About Last Night is a bland title, indeed, but then, so is It Happened One Night, which was a huge hit in 1934, winning a bunch of Oscars, and only chosen because Columbia didn't want to hint that this was just another film about a bus trip (the story even takes place over a series of nights).
My favorite case of blanding out a title is Playing By Heart, a little-seen relationship drama starring an ensemble cast including Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie. The original, far superior title was Dancing About Architecture.
A studio executive I knew once said anything with "heart" in the title was doomed to failure. English was not his first language and he was not good at his job, so take that for what it is worth.
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