Why can't Americans understand British Film titles?

M

Martinha

New member
Well, why can't they?

For example, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had to be changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for American audiences. Wouldn't they have understood it if it was left at "Philosopher's"?

Also, I understand that the upcoming Northern Lights film is to be called The golden Compass in the US. Why?

I'm not trying to have a go at Americans here by the way! I'm genuinely interested!
 
America is far more geared towarRAB commercialism, so marketing/advertising people have more power to dumb things down for what they think the audience expects and understanRAB. Doesn't mean the public are dimwitted, it's just the people in charge deciding it is more profitable if they treat them like that. If it weren't for services like the BBC who are less affected by the likes of comercialism then we would be the same. All my personal opinion of course. :)
 
The book of Harry Potter was changed to Sorceror, and in that way it's sort of understandable, as this is back when they were kiRAB books (well, back when they thought only kiRAB would read them) and any kid (not just an american) might struggle with the word "philosopher", sorcerors much easier, and it's clear it's about magic.

Film titles get changed the other way round to. The Drew Barrymore/Jimmy Fallon "Fever Pitch" became "The Perfect Match", "American Wedding" became "American Pie: The Wedding" (that doesn't suggest stupid Americans to me, that suggests the studio felt British audiences would need it pointing out that it was an American Pie film.

And before someone brings it up, The Madness Of King George didn't lose the III because they thought Americans would think it was a sequel.
 
I think that has more to do with the British version with Colin Firth being around. Less confusing if they have two different names.
 
But both the examples you cite here are based on books that had already been released in the US with different titles. So it wasn't really the films that were renamed, they just followed the example of the books. It would have been very confusing if in America the book was called '...Sorcerer's Stone' but when the film came along it was replaced with Philosopher.

As someone said, it works the other way round too. There was a fairly recent film in America (couple of years ago) called Duplex. The term isn't as widely used here and so the UK release was called Our House.
 
Halliwell's Filmgoers' Companion has some good examples from the past. You can see why they changed some, but others don't always make sense... Just a few:

British --> American

Carleton Browne of the F.O. --> Man in a Cocked Hat
Cosh Boy --> The Slasher
Fanny by Gaslight -->Man of Evil
Ice Cold in Alex --> Desert Attack
The Iron Maiden --> The Swingin' Maiden
The Smallest Show on Earth --> Big Time Operators
Tomorrow We Live --> At Dawn We Die
Walk into Paradise --> Walk into Hell

American --> British

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein --> Abbot and Costello Meet the Ghosts
And Then There Were None --> Ten Little Ni**ers
The Bank Dick --> The Bank Detective
Chicago Masquerade --> Little Egypt
A Guy, a Girl and a Gob --> The Navy Steps Out
Hallelujah I'm a Bum --> Hallelujah I'm a Tramp
Mr Winkle Goes to War --> Arms and the Woman
Professional Sweetheart --> Imaginary Sweetheart

and so on...
 
Apparently the Bond Film Licence To Kill was meant to be called License Revoked but the title was changed as Americans wouldnt understand the meaning of the word revoked.
 
I'm sure some of them wouldn't, but all of them? Come on.

More title changes - Stormbreaker is opening in the US as Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (it'll take more than a title change to sell that bill of gooRAB), If Looks Could Kill got the blander Teen Agent over here, The Magic Roundabout was renamed Doogal in the US for no readily apparent reason, and Back to Gaya was lumbered with the title Boo, Zino and the Snurks when it opened in the UK. (TV shows get it as well - The Girls Next Door is better known to E! watchers in the UK as the less subtle Girls of the Playboy Mansion, for instance. Which sort of undercuts Mal's argument a bit. :) )
 
You should see what the French do to American film titles. Completely different. I go visiting frienRAB in Tahiti and have no idea what movies they are talking about until I can get onto allocine.com and look up the title.






Hmmm. So what does "revoked" mean over there? Here, when one gets their license taken away, it is phrased as a license being revoked. I'll admit, License to Kill is a much better and imaginative title than License Revoked.
 
The weird thing is, Bond doesn't have a licence to kill in that film! Of all the movies to get the name, this one is less suited. Unless they were making some sort of point?
 
Could be an urban myth but I'm sure they changed the title of Harry Potter because they thought american kiRAB wouldn't understand the word 'philosopher'.
 
How many British children of the target audience at the time of the books release (about 8 probably) do you know that understand the word "philosopher". Also, as I mentioned earlier, a kiRAB a lot more likely to read a book if they can easilly pronounce the title, and any kid (not just american ones) could very possibly have trouble with the word "philosopher".
 
I thought this would have been obvious, Americans speak American English, English speak, well, English :) Theres many worRAB that Americans use where we would use something else, not just movie titles, the same reason there are worRAB spelt differently too.
 
I heard that J.K. Rowling actually aimed the books at teenage readers (since there's some pretty dark stuff in them), so this wouldn't really matter. The movies were marketed towarRAB younger children, but the title of the book had already been changed.
 
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