15 films with completely different titles in other countries
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Your support makes all the difference."Champions" is a movie about a hotshot lawyer required to coach an underdog peewee hockey team as community service after getting arrested for drunk driving. If you think this plot is suspiciously similar to "The Mighty Ducks," you are correct.
And it's not just a low-budget Hallmark Channel remake either -- it's actually the Australian title of the same movie.
Movie titles can change from country to country for many reasons, such as specific cultural references that go over people's heads or marketing ploys to get the attention of a larger audience.
Here are 15 movie title that were changed in other English-speaking markets.
"13 Going on 30" (2004) became "Suddenly 30" in Australia.
This romantic comedy from 2004 was released as "13 Going on 30" in the United States, however the title was changed to "Suddenly 30" in Australia.
The expression that the original title uses is more commonly heard in American culture compared to Australian, and according to IMDb, it was changed to "Suddenly 30" because distributors thought audiences would misunderstand the original title.
"Airplane!" (1980) became "Flying High?" in Australia and New Zealand.
Distributors in both Australia and New Zealand changed the title of this classic comedy from "Airplane!" to "Flying High" because they thought it would be too similar to another American movie released at the same time.
"The Concorde... Airport '79" was an unrelated film to "Airplane." However, due to release delays of US films at the time, it was released in 1980 in Australia and named "Airport '80." Having "Airplane" and "Airport '80" released at the same time would have caused much confusion to moviegoers, so distributors changed the title.
"Fever Pitch" (2005) was transformed into "The Perfect Catch" in the UK.
"Fever Pitch" is actually an American adaptation of a 1997 British movie with the same name starring Colin Firth. The British movie was about soccer, and the American version adapted it to baseball.
Distributors in the UK changed the movie title to "The Perfect Catch" to separate it from the original 1997 movie. Australia and New Zealand used the UK title.
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"Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle" (2004) is "Harold + Kumar Get the Munchies" outside the US.
The reason behind this movie title change is pretty simple: White Castle is an American franchise and foreign distributors thought it wouldn't be understood by international audiences. They replaced "Go to White Castle" with "Get the Munchies."
"Harry and the Hendersons" (1987) is "Bigfoot and the Hendersons" in the UK.
The replacement of "Harry" to "Bigfoot" by UK distributors was a marketing technique so that viewers would know the movie was about Bigfoot.
The subsequent TV show and DVD releases in the UK have used the original US title. This is most likely because the name "Harry" was already known by the audience and "Bigfoot" was no longer necessary.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001) is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in the UK.
The difference in these movie titles is a carryover from JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book. The change using "Sorcerer" instead of "Philosopher" was made to make it seem more magical and less academic for American children.
"Hoosiers" (1986) is "Best Shot" in the UK and Australia.
Even though some people in America don't even know what a "Hoosier" is, they probably have a vague idea that it's related to the US state of Indiana and basketball.
UK and Australian distributors changed the title to "Best Shot" because no one outside of the United States would understand this reference (unless they follow college basketball).
"Live Free or Die Hard" (2007) is "Die Hard 4.0" outside the US.
Again, the title change in different English-speaking markets is due to an American reference that many people outside of the US would not understand. The US title is based off of the New Hampshire state motto which is "Live free or die."
Because it is the fourth installment of the "Die Hard" series, many country distributors changed the title to either "Die Hard 4" or "Die Hard 4.0."
"Neighbors" (2014) is "Bad Neighbours" in Australia and the UK.
Besides the obvious additional 'u' in "Neighbors," distributors in Australia and the UK didn't want viewers to be confused with an Australian TV show, "Neighbours," which is the longest-running Australian soap opera.
Fun fact: Russell Crowe, Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth, and Natalie Imbruglia are just a few famous faces who got their start on this iconic soap opera on Ramsey Street.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" (2017) is "Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge" overseas.
There isn't a clear reason behind this movie title change across the pond. However a theory is that using "Dead Men Tell No Tales" might be too controversial given the recent terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom.
That, or it just might have tested better with the new title in the United Kingdom.
"The Avengers" (2012) is "Avengers Assemble" in the UK.
"The Avengers" is the name of a popular British TV show from 1961-1969. Distributors in the UK decided to change the movie title to "Avenger's Assemble" to separate the TV show and the movie.
"The Mighty Ducks" (1992) is known as "Champions" in Australia.
Distributors in Australia changed the title from "The Mighty Ducks" to "Champions." Even though this Australian title seems to be a spoiler alert, it was apparently a marketing decision. Distributors were worried potential ticket buyers would think the movie was about ducks and not a hockey team and wouldn't want to see it in theaters.
"The Peanuts Movie" (2015) is called "Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie" in the UK.
Distributors in the United Kingdom decided to add "Snoopy and Charlie Brown" to the US movie title of "The Peanuts Movie" as a marketing technique to have more of a name association to the characters.
"The Sandlot" (1993) became "The Sandlot Kids" in Australia and the UK.
There doesn't seem to be much reasoning behind this name change. Australian and UK distributors might have added "Kids" at the end of the title to make sure audiences knew it was targeted towards children.
"Zootopia" (2016) is known as "Zootropolis" in the UK.
When asked about the movie title change from across the pond, a Disney spokesman said, "In the UK, we decided to change the US title to 'Zootropolis' to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for UK audiences."
In other words, it seems as though they changed the title just because they could.
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