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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-25-2016, 03:26 PM:
 
What’s With All the Bland Movie Titles?
By ADAM THOMPSON

Many critics have called 2015 a strong creative year for Hollywood. Yet some of its most prestigious productions have titles that almost sound like placeholders for a later time when filmmakers come up with their movie’s actual name.

“Concussion” is about concussions. “Steve Jobs,” “Trumbo” and “Joy” are the stories of real people named Steve Jobs, Trumbo and Joy, while “Carol” is the story of a fictional woman named Carol. And you’ll never guess where much of “Brooklyn” takes place.

We saw this zero-frills approach for mainstream offerings like “Spy” and “Everest,” and for highbrow indies like “Grandma,” “The Lady in the Van” and “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” If this piece were a 2015 movie, it might well be called “Film Titles.”

Maybe it’s the need for a concise title that’s readable on the Fandango app. Perhaps a simple name that’s easily translated equals more sales in international markets. Maybe bare-bones titles show up more readily on Google searches. And there’s always the possibility that filmmakers are making straight artistic choices about less being more.

Whatever the reason, it feels like we’ve been heading this way for a while, especially when it comes to comedies.

The Tina Fey-Amy Poehler party picture “Sisters” is just the latest in a string of comedies in recent years that deliver exactly what they promise in two words, max. You don’t need to think long to get the basic gist of what’s going on with “Neighbors,” “Chef,” “Sex Tape,” “Identity Thief,” “The Dictator,” “Horrible Bosses,” “Bad Teacher” or “Tower Heist.”

A few filmmakers did dare to throw titular curveballs at their audiences in 2015. Latin didn’t stop Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina” from making plenty of year-end best-of lists (though calling the movie “Against the Machine” would have given us yet another meat-and-potatoes title). Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” implies a connection between the most violent parts of Chicago and Iraq.

Rare were moviegoers who understood the meaning of the title of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” without looking it up. And Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson went a step further with their new stop-motion drama “Anomalisa.” The title is a nickname invented for a character named Lisa who is, yes, an anomaly.

Neither does a classic movie require that descriptive a title in the opening credits. “Stagecoach,” “Annie Hall,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Apartment” all made the American Film Institute’s 1998 list of the 100 greatest American movies.

But for every success like “The Graduate” (No. 7 on AFI’s list), there’s at least one bomb like “Snakes on a Plane,” perhaps the gold standard of titles that could double as pitches.

If there’s any doubt about whether studios get more creative with their titles in 2016, look no further than Jan. 22.

That’s the release date for an R-rated Robert De Niro-Zac Efron comedy. The trailer features De Niro’s character at a spring break bash screaming, “Party ’til you’re pregnant!”

The name of the movie? “Dirty Grandpa.”

Wall Street Journal article

(Mike again:)

I will say that "The Revenant" is already the most mispronounced movie title in my entire exhibition career. I've heard Revenant, Relevant, Renavant, Remnant, Reverent, Reme-Rene-Rele-what-is-it? and others. The best was a customer who saw it on the marquee as:

THE REVENANT
LEONARDO DICAPRIO

and asked me, "What's 'The Revenge of Leonardo DiCaprio' about?"
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-25-2016, 03:36 PM:
 
You should have asked "where have all the really good screen play writers gone".... Todays Hollywood screen plays are mainly written by 5th and 6th graders.

Mark
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 01-26-2016, 01:19 AM:
 
The fellow who trained me for projection "all those years ago", he being in the business since "They started putting sound on film" had a theory which he developed in the 1960s and swore was relevant in the 1980s before he retired: Hollywood is running out of titles. With the list mentioned and others in the past I can somewhat see his point...
 

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-26-2016, 08:23 AM:
 
Shorter titles are easier to put on marquees and you can get the whole title on those little signs they have at the doors of each auditorium at the multiplex.
I'm sure the marketing department has their hands in there somewhere.
 

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Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 01-26-2016, 11:58 AM:
 
When (in recent decades) have titles ever been long in general? Just some off the top of my head from the 80's/90's

Forrest Gump (about Forrest Gump)
Jerry Maguire (about Jerry Maguire)
The Usual Suspects (about the usual suspects)
Jurassic Park (about Jurassic Park)
Edward Scissorhands (about Edward Scissorhands)
The Terminator (about The Terminator)
The Rock (takes place at Alcatraz aka "The Rock")

Every so often you get a title like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" but, in general, titles tend to be 1-3 words and pretty descriptive. I think you want somebody to have a sense of what a movie is about when they see the title.

What should they have called "Concussion?" "Playing Football and It's Effect on the Development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy" or something like "Full Contact Risk?"
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-26-2016, 12:40 PM:
 
It's not just the movies and titles that are bland.
I picked up this packet of salt at a theatre
concession stand the other nite:

 

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Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 01-26-2016, 02:48 PM:
 

quote: Mike Blakesley

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I will say that "The Revenant" is already the most mispronounced movie title in my entire exhibition career. I've heard Revenant, Relevant, Renavant, Remnant, Reverent, Reme-Rene-Rele-what-is-it? and others.

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quote: Buck Wilson

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Just read it

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I see the flaw in your argument;>
 

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Posted by Jason McMillan (Member # 5542) on 01-26-2016, 04:48 PM:
 
For me personally, the longest title I encountered was when I was working for Landmark Theatres and we had "The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain". While it's memorable because it IS a long title, I think that's an example of going to the extreme on the other side of the spectrum.
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-26-2016, 07:02 PM:
 
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day beats that by one character.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-26-2016, 08:35 PM:
 
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned to Love the Bomb" kicks both of their butts.
 

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Posted by Matt Russell (Member # 8989) on 01-26-2016, 09:09 PM:
 
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is pretty close behind at 12 words.
 

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Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 01-27-2016, 08:09 AM:
 
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters"

And yes, when I put that on the marquee I didn't abbreviate, I even spelled out 'colon' .

But, I have to agree with Lyle, 'bland' titles have always been the norm, not the exception. The Godfather, Patton, JFK, Nixon, etc.
 

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Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 01-28-2016, 09:06 AM:
 
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
 

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Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 01-28-2016, 12:31 PM:
 
Obviously not the longest, given previous examples here; but one of my favorite
'long-ish' titles that I remember running at a horror movie festival once was:

"The Incredably Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed-Up Zombies"
(1964) My recollection is that the title was more entertaining than the movie.

It was advertised as the "World's First Monster Musical" & was filmed in "Terrorama"
and "Magnificant" ( ! ) Eastman Color according to the trailer which you can see: HERE
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-30-2016, 03:28 AM:
 
Jeffry wins.

Another recent-ish title that I can think of:

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-30-2016, 04:57 PM:
 
Or... What about gerund movie titles?

Finding Nemo
Saving Private Ryan
Driving Miss Daisy
Being John Malkovich
Educating Rita
Romancing the Stone
Raising Airzona...

ad infinitum...

https://literalminded.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/gerund-movie-titles-revisited/


 

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