It’s really hard not to judge a movie by its title, especially in today’s age where movies also get their own hashtags and social media names. It may seem hard to imagine, but more often then not, the original title for a film doesn’t quite stick, and with good reason. If Back to the Future would have kept the title, Spaceman from Pluto, we doubt many people would have seen it. This classic film wasn’t the only one to suffer from a terrible original title. Here are 27 amazing movies that were nearly ruined with awful titles.
Titanic - The Ship Of Dreams
Paramount/Everett
"Titanic was called the ship of dreams, and it was, it really was." Though we adore those lines from Old Rose in the iconic 1997 film, we're glad that
James Cameron convinced
Paramount Pictures to do away with the original cheesy title. Even Leo and Kate wouldn't have been able to save the film with that title.
The Avengers - Group Hug
Disney/Marvel
Before
Marvel released it's slate of upcoming films through the year 2019, they had the huge task of keeping the names of their releases under-wraps. While,
The Avengers was being shot in NYC, the film worked under the tile,
Group Hug which sounds rather porny if you ask us.
Obsessed - Oh No She Didn’t
Screen Gems/Everett
Though we adore Queen B, we're just going to have to admit that
Obsessed wasn't exactly her best performance. Luckily, she had acting veterans
Idris Elba and
Ali Larter by her side. Also, it's probably best that that the studio scraped the original title of the film which was
Oh No She Didn't. How tragic would that have been?
article continues below ad
Toy Story - Toyz in the Hood
Disney
When you think about
Toy Story now, it's hard to imagine the classic '90s
Disney/Pixar film as anything else. However, the studio went through at least 200 film titles including,
Moving Buddies,
The Cowboy & the Spaceman,
To Infinity and Beyond and our most favorite,
Toyz in the Hood. We're happy the studio settled on the simpler title, mostly.
The Dark Knight - Rory’s First Kiss
Warner Bros./Everett
With the advent of technology nothing, much is sacred in Hollywood anymore. Sometimes, studios have to get creative with film titles just so avid fans won't go spoiling things before the studio is ready to reveal them.
Warner Bros. dubbed
The Dark Knight,
Rory's First Kiss which sounds like a
Gilmore Girls episode in order to throw fans off.
Hitch - The Last First Kiss
Columbia/Everett
Will Smith's wing-man romantic comedy where he stars as the suave Hitch nearly had a title that was about as sexy as a teeth cleaning. The original title for
Hitch was
The Last First Kiss, and it would have probably also been the last time anyone saw the Fresh Prince in a romantic film as well. Luckily, that terrible title was vetoed before the movie hit the box office.
article continues below ad
Casablanca - Everybody Come to Rick’s
Warner Bros/ Everett
It's hard to imagine that a film as iconic as 1942's
Casablanca nearly had a title that was reminiscent of family sitcoms. Somebody at Warner Bros. realized that wasn't going to work for their World War II era audiences, and the title was swiftly changed from
Everybody Come to Rick’s to
Casablanca.
Scream - Scary Movie
Deminsion Films/Everett
Who would have thought that the parody of
Scream,
Scary Movie would have taken the original title of the 1996 epic teen horror flick. The Weinstein brothers changed the film title from
Scary Movie to
Scream after being inspired by the
Michael Jackson song of the same name.
Blade Runner - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Warner Bros/Everett
Ridley Scott's iconic science-fiction film,
Blade Runner was adapted from
Philip K. Dick's novel,
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Luckily someone at Warner Bros was like, um no.... and they went with the catchy and chic
Blade Runner instead.
article continues below ad
Halloween - The Babysitter Murders
Compass/Everett
We're thinking the original title for
Jamie Lee Curtis' breakout film was just a tad too obvious and cheesy with the name
The Babysitter Murders. Instead, the good folks at Warner Bros decided to go with the more chilling and ominous,
Halloween for the film's title.
Psycho - Wimpy
Universal Pictures/Everett
Wimpy just doesn't have the same ring to it as
Psycho, and the master of suspense
Alfred Hitchcock realized that well before his classic horror film
Psycho hit theaters. After all, you can't be all that wimpy if you're able to stomach murdering folks in cold blood.
Goodfellas - Wiseguy
Warner Bros./Everett
article continues below ad
Saturday Night Fever - The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night
Parmount/Everett
This '70s film starring
John Travolta was initially set to be named
The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night, which was after the article on which the film is based. Luckily, some smart cookie soon realized that cinema goers and article readers aren't necessarily the same crop of people. Also,
Saturday Night Fever sounds like a party we definitely want to attend.
Pretty Woman - 3000
Buena Vista/Everett
Originally the script for
Julia Roberts and
Richard Gere's 1990 romantic drama
Pretty Woman was extremely dark. The title was even supposed to be called,
3000 named for the amount of money that Robert's character Vivian charged for her services. However, the studio quickly decided that the movie was too dark so they changed the title and the ending to something a bit more magical.
Bring It On - Jump
Universal/Everett
Um..... we don't even know where
Universal got
Jump from but we are certainly pleased that they quickly dumped that stupid name for
Bring It On, giving the teen cheerleading flick the chance that it deserved to go down in teen movie history.
article continues below ad
Not Another Teen Movie - Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can’t Hardly Wait to Be Kissed
Columbia/Everett
We're all for parodies and teen flicks, but sometimes things just go a bit too far. 2001's
Not Another Teen Movie was almost stuck with the outrageously long title,
Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can’t Hardly Wait to Be Kissed which is a combo of some super popular teen films from the '90s. Luckily someone realized that the title was beyond too long and they scrapped it for the catchier shorter title.
Fatal Attraction - Affairs of the Heart
Paramount/Everett
Affairs of the Heart sounds like trashy romance novel. (Not that there is anything wrong with those.) It certainly doesn't sound like a psychological thriller worthy of
Glenn Close and
Michael Douglas. Someone over at Paramount obviously felt the same way, and delivered the haunting title
Fatal Attraction instead.
Back To The Future - Spaceman from Pluto
Universal/Everett
Where would we be without
Steven Spielberg? We certainly wouldn't have
Back to the Future and its sequels. Apparently, Spielberg's co-executive producer
Sidney Sheinberg wasn't to keen on the film's title so he suggested,
Spaceman from Pluto instead. Befuddled, Spielberg decided to take Sheinberg's suggestion as if were an hilarious joke. He responded by saying, "Dear Sid, thank you for your most humorous memo. We got a big laugh out of it. Keep ‘em coming.” ICON.
article continues below ad
Tomorrow Never Dies - Tomorrow Never Lies
United Artists/Everett
It may seem hard to believe, but this James Bond classic starring
Pierce Brosnan, actually got its name by accident. The original title of the film was
Tomorrow Never Lies, but "Lies" was changed to "Dies" in a typo on a fax. When the
MGM executives spotted the error they decided to keep the new title, and the rest is history.
Alien - Star Beast
20th Century Fox/Everett
Alien is such a straightforward and striking name for a film, that it's befuddling that
20th Century Fox almost gave the film the ridiculously corny name
Star Beast. Seriously, it sounds like the name of a terrible action figure. Luckily,
Ridley Scott's
classic became
Alien.
Big - When I Grow Up
20th Century Fox/Everett
We actually don't hate the original name of
Tom Hanks' fantasy comedy,
Big.
When I Grow Up definitely gets the entire point of the film across. However, we figured that with Hanks as the star, it really didn't matter what the film was called, so
Big was good enough.
article continues below ad
Snakes On A Plane - Pacific Flight 121
New Line Cinema/Everett
Anytime that you have an idea that you're unsure about, its probably best that you ask one of the highest grossing actors of all time.
Samuel L. Jackson came onto the set of
Snakes on a Plane one day to learn that the studio had changed the hilarious film title to
Pacific Flight 121. He spoke to the studio who were afraid the original title gave too much away. Jackson told them, "That’s exactly what you should do. When audiences hear it they say, ‘We’re there!'" And that is how
Snakes on a Plane went down in cinematic history.
Stand By Me - The Body
Columbia/Everett
Though
Stand By Me is an adaptation of
Stephen King's novella
The Body, the film would have seemed much more gruesome if the studio had chosen to keep that same title. Deciding that the title was way too creepy to have children involved, the film became the timeless classic
Stand By Me.
The Breakfast Club - The Lunch Bunch
Universal/Everett
We can see why
John Hughes quickly changed the title to one of his best films.
The Lunch Bunch sounds like a cornier version of
The Brady Bunch, if that's even possible. Though
The Breakfast Club isn't exactly the most clear title when it comes to the film's plot, it just sounds a hell of a lot better.
article continues below ad
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Head Cheese
Bryanston Pictures/Everett
1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's original title was almost as gruesome as the film's plot. The horror flick was originally called, Head Cheese which quite frankly reminds us of the pork aisle at the grocery store. Luckily the film was given the title, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the rest is history.
Hancock - Tonight, He Comes
Sony/Everett
Apparently, someone in the universe loves slapping terrible names onto Will Smith projects. Like
Hitch's awful first title,
Tonight, He Comes was scrapped in favor of a much better title,
Hancock. At least someone realized that an off-beat superhero film didn't also need a terrible name.
Annie Hall - It Had To Be Jew
United Artists/Everett
Director
Woody Allen had a number of titles up his sleeve for his 1977 romantic comedy. Allen initially wanted to call
Annie Hall,
Anhedoniaafter, a super complicated medical term that means the inability to experience pleasure. The folks at United Artists quickly vetoed that mega complicated title and the rest of Allen's ideas including,
It Had To Be Jew, Rollercoaster Named Desire,
Me and My Goy,
Anxiety and Alvy, Annie Hall was obviously the best choice.