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"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" and other bad cases where BRAND MUST BE IN TITLE.

KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,332
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Hollywood is all about Brand these days. The brand rules on, so much to the point where we are at the point where Hollywood has to keep the original brand in the title in there somehow. Be it prequels like Solo: A Star Wars Story, or the upcoming Furiosa, a Mad Max Saga. Because if we just called them "Solo" or "Furiosa" the regular people would have no idea they belonged to brand! Or at least one executive thinks.

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What other bad examples of this are out there. I know there is also the upcoming John Wick Presents: Ballerina. Which there is still time to pivot and save us from this title (There hasn't been a poster yet at least) so I'm not going to immediately throw that one under the bus, because that would be taking the crown if it does come out like that. But that might change. So I need to know what's the next worst case of these.
 
skeezx

skeezx

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Oct 27, 2017
20,421
still bugs me they didn't just call it Knives Out 2. if they had to keep the "brand"
 
Berry Pie

Berry Pie

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Nov 29, 2022
1,281
You know, I never really understood why Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire couldn't have just been called Precious.
 
tokkun

tokkun

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Oct 27, 2017
5,458
The Glass Onion example is particularly weird, because if they were going for a franchise, then "A Benoit Blanc Mystery" would have made a lot more sense than "A Knives Out Mystery."
 
Davidion

Davidion

Charitable King
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Oct 27, 2017
6,257
Yeah these don't bother me as much...per se... but I feel like they all could have been made better if you just edited down to property:movie name? Yeah I get it, that puts the actual movie second, but even then you could have styled it in a way that accentuates the title. Undoubtedly it has to do with order of appearance, rights, contracts, brand egos, etc, but still

Knives out:
The Glass Onion

Star Wars:
Solo

Mad Max:
Furiosa
 
J75

J75

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Sep 29, 2018
6,720
Glass Onion one angers me. The old school whodunnits and detective novels all had different titles despite sharing the same protag, and they all did fine, but not this. SIGH
 
Holmes

Holmes

AVALANCHE
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
 
BabyDontHurtMe

BabyDontHurtMe

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Dec 9, 2018
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New Jersey
Not really the same thing but Birds of Prey was renamed to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey before being renamed again to Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
 
Teenage Fansub

Teenage Fansub

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May 24, 2019
22,374
Having never heard of these guys before, this title was pretty confusing.
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BabyDontHurtMe said:
Not really the same thing but Birds of Prey was renamed to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey before being renamed again to Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
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I think in that case they should have added "A Suicide Squad tale" at the end to make it even more ridiculous.
 
Faddy

Faddy

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Oct 25, 2017
9,210
National Lampoon's Van Wilder.

It was weird at the time because the brand was pretty much dead.
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

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Oct 27, 2017
9,783
S. Darko
aka
S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale
S. Darko: Donnie Darko 2

And in at least one UK TV ad

Donnie Darko 2: S. Darko
 
CupOfDoom

CupOfDoom

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Dec 17, 2017
3,296
J75 said:
Glass Onion one angers me. The old school whodunnits and detective novels all had different titles despite sharing the same protag, and they all did fine, but not this. SIGH
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They even let the new Poirot adaptations kept their original titles.

It's "A haunting in Venice" and not "Agatha Christie presents: A Haunting in Venice , a Hurcule Poirot story"
 
doops.

doops.

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Jun 3, 2020
2,667
skeezx said:
still bugs me they didn't just call it Knives Out 2. if they had to keep the "brand"
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J75 said:
Glass Onion one angers me. The old school whodunnits and detective novels all had different titles despite sharing the same protag, and they all did fine, but not this. SIGH
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To be fair, Rian Johnson supposedly wanted 'A Benoit Blanc Mystery' to be the recurring subtitle for the series but Netflix forced his hand to put Knives Out in the title instead for brand recognition and so forth.
 
Precious Tritium

Precious Tritium

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Oct 25, 2017
9,527
Teenage Fansub said:
Having never heard of these guys before, this title was pretty confusing.
wnLYKVT.jpeg



I think in that case they should have added "A Suicide Squad tale" at the end to make it even more ridiculous.
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This is the only one that I think is bad in thread tbh. You shouldn't need to know them from SNL or YouTube to be able to watch the movie.

I'm really not annoyed with any of these and generally feel it would be incredibly confusing to look back on in 10 years to figure out all these sequels, prequels, side-quels connected together if they didn't. It's got the franchise name on the movie poster and no one will ever call it by that long name, big deal.
 
louiedog

louiedog

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Oct 25, 2017
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American Pie Presents: Band Camp
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile
American Pie Presents: Beta House
American Pie Presents: The Book of Love
American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules
 
404LinkNotFound

404LinkNotFound

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Oct 27, 2017
8,745
Not quiite the same i think but the stupid "An Ubisoft Original" nonsense that Ubisoft been pushing lately as if its some arthouse brand or something
 
Dr PeterVenkman

Dr PeterVenkman

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Oct 28, 2017
2,339
The Dark Knight Rises

The Batman Arkham games

Red Dead Redemption 2 not being called Red Dead R_______

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark -- I saw this nonsense on disney+ and they can fuck right off...that's not the god damned name of the movie!
 
Psyborg

Psyborg

Member
Aug 6, 2018
1,783
Loved the game but I feel like "Cadence of Hyrule" would have had a better ring to it then Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda. Call me crazy...
 
Shang

Shang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,735
xendless said:
Rogue One A Star Wars Story
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Was it really so difficult to just call it Star Wars: Rogue One? "A Star Wars Story" just makes it sound like a bedtime story.

I do love the craziness of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series of games, which should technically be:

Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Dark Forces III: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Dark Forces IV: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy
 
HellofaMouse

HellofaMouse

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Oct 27, 2017
6,330
as far as marketing a movie goes, this is the most harmless thing ever. of course they're gonna use the name recognition to their advantage.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

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Oct 25, 2017
19,499
Shang said:
Was it really so difficult to just call it Star Wars: Rogue One? "A Star Wars Story" just makes it sound like a bedtime story.

I do love the craziness of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series of games, which should technically be:

Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Dark Forces III: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Dark Forces IV: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy
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They didn't market episode VII-IX on the posters and trailers with numbers, as they were a soft reboot with a focus on new characters, the numbers are arguably daunting to newcomers. So they might have been concerned calling it Star Wars: Rogue One might create some brand confusion before episode VIII came out.
 
Speevy

Speevy

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Oct 26, 2017
19,441
They're all stupid titles but no one wants to be the guy explaining why a movie lost millions because possibly people didn't know what it was.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,499
Dr PeterVenkman said:
The Dark Knight Rises

The Batman Arkham games

Red Dead Redemption 2 not being called Red Dead R_______

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark -- I saw this nonsense on disney+ and they can fuck right off...that's not the god damned name of the movie!
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Red Dead Redemption 2 ties so immaculately with the first one, especially the last 2 chapters. I can't think of a better name.
 
I am a Bird

I am a Bird

Member
Oct 31, 2017
7,350
Let's talk about films with Rambo in them.

First Blood
First Blood: Part Two
Rambo III
John Rambo
Rambo Last Blood

Stick to a fucking pattern! Mainline Starwars films are the gold standard for sequel names.
 
Smoolio

Smoolio

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,906
Not a movie but I was disappointed that Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast wasnt Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II, Dark Forces III

Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Should have been:

Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II, Dark Forces III
Star Wars Jedi Academy: Jedi Outcast II, Jedi Knight III, Dark Forces IIII

Would have been glorious!
 
Grain Silo

Grain Silo

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Dec 15, 2017
2,556
I've always found the Arkham branding for the Batman games kind of silly. The Arkham name is famous for the asylum, but then it's a city, a villain adopts it, and it's also a prequel that has precious little associated with Arkham.
 
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