American Pie? It must be a superpatriotic movie, perhaps about the Kennedy family or the Clinton’s one.
Blades of Glory? For sure it talks about celebration, victory, triumph… a film about war indeed.
Rush Hour? Most likely it’s an action drama, I love suspense… let’s go!
To make the story short, would you have thought of all 3 movies as a comedies just reading their titles? Never.
Do you think that people who enjoy action drama reveled in Rush Hour? Never 2 (the revenge!)
2 considerations:
- How does a title which doesn’t reflect the film affect its sales? I think negatively. Not because the film was bad. Just because the wrong audience went to watch it and after-view testimonial can generate bad word of mouth.
- Was the title You’ve Got Mail a good choice? For me simply terrific! Not only because it was targeting the right people but also becaue it came out when e-mailing was starting to become famous and the title was clearly communicating it.
Now share with us your opinion.
What’s the correlation between a movie’s title and its would-you-watch-it factor?
Creatively yours,
Pier
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I think using comedies as your examples don’t really support the point that you are trying to make. Comedies by their very nature generally have some sort of satirical element. In two of these instances, the titles were all complimentary to the actual movies, and worked very well. The title Blades of Glory is perfect for a satirical look at the competitive side of figure skating. American Pie had a lot of buzz. The title is a little more subtle, but I think works in it’s allusion to growing up in America and “coming of age”. “Pie” can also be crass slang and allude to the girl chasing that went on the entire movie. I can’t speak for Rush Hour because I didn’t see it. But I’ll say, the title itself certainly didn’t make anything in my head click, didn’t spark any curiosity, and wasn’t funny in juxtaposition, or in its own right. Its just one of those kind of blah generic titles. |
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January 19th, 2009
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I support the point of Pier in the sense that a good copy can make the fortune of a film. http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/Q/q/P/rushhour3poster.jpg No satyrical elements at all… If I was in front of a cinema I would get the wong insights and enter thinking about a movie about action & gangs… bad job by both copy & art!! |
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January 20th, 2009
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The American Pie and Rush Hour franchises are some of the most profitable in Hollywood history. And Blades of Glory, can be considered part of the Will Ferrell franchise where satire is the key. I think the question isn’t whether it works, but why. Which is down to intelligent targeting for the widest potential audience possible. A film title is generally part of a visual that includes photos and a strapline. This is what sells a film. Very few people go to see a movie because of the title and showing times in their local newspaper. And even if they do, there’s usually some visual advertising space allocated to it anyway! |
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January 22nd, 2009
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To much philosphy for my taste guys I think that the answer is YES: a copy can make the difference. Of course also the art director needs to contribute for the perfect alchemy |
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January 22nd, 2009
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I have a question for you Pier. Can you make an example about a case where a copywriter cannot make any difference, a case where success of a brand it is only about visual? bye. Z. |
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February 2nd, 2009
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Let me think dear zulu. I promise to come back to you very soon. Creatively yours, |
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February 7th, 2009
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