Hilarious or Strange Alternate Movie Titles Around the World

Movies commonly have various titles depending on many things: different regions, marketing purposes, or cultural references. Sometimes, the alternatives are truly something: you have to agree that translating Pretty Woman to “I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money” is pretty funny. And yes, Rain of Falafel probably sounds tastier than Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ? Check out our newest blog and get ready for some surprises about your faves.

Fourth Die Hard title got boring

Bruce Willis’ fourth time in the skin of John McLane has a rather dramatic ultimatum in its original title. He can either Live Free or Die Hard… But not in all countries. Why did so many go for the simple “Die Hard 4.0”? Apparently, the distributor was worried that audiences outside the US wouldn’t understand the connection to the New Hampshire state motto (Live Free or Die). Yeah… That was probably the right call 🙂

Hilarious Chinese translations

We could talk about translations for the Chinese market forever: they are truly something! Very descriptive and straight to the point ? Here are some of our favorites.  

Pretty Woman – I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money

As Good as it Gets – Mr. Cat Poop 

The Professional – This Hit Man Is Not as Cold as He Thought

Boogie Nights – His Great Device Makes Him Famous

G.I. Jane – Satan Female Soldier

Once upon a Time in the West – Western Department of Memories

Ratatouille – Food General Mobilization

Neighbors had to be bad in Australia

Why change Neighbors (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron) to Bad Neighbors? It seems so unnecessary, but Australians had their reasons: their beloved soap opera running for decades has the same name. Bad Neighbors fits just fine, as living next to frat brothers certainly isn’t ideal for a couple with a newborn!

Some questionable choices…

We know there were valid reasons for these translations, but still, they’re a lot of fun to read! 🙂

Girl, Interrupted – 17-Year Old Girl’s Medical Chart (Japan)

Grease – Vaseline (Argentina)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Rain of Falafel (Israel)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – The Boy Who Drowned in Chocolate Sauce (Denmark)

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Behaved Very Nicely Around Me (Malaysia)

The Avengers were assembled

One would think that no one could doubt who The Avengers are. Turns out in the UK, they could be mistaken for a bunch of characters from a popular TV show from the 60s… And so the superhero flick turned to Avengers Assemble in the UK. 

Harry Potter and whose stone? 

Philosopher’s stone? Sorcerer’s stone? Which one is correct? Both, as it turns out – it just depends on where you are. The original book was entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but the magical word Sorcerer was preferred for American audiences. 

Your Filmzie movie dictionary

You may be familiar with a couple of Filmzie favorites under completely different titles. Unlikely Hero, one of our most popular films with Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Daniels, and Emma Stone, is widely known as Paper Man. Searching for The Color of Time, dreamy, poetic biography with James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Jessica Chastain? On Filmzie, we use the British title, Forever Love. Another favorite of our audience, Winter Passing with Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, and Ed Harris has an alternative name Happy Endings. And Bruce Willis’ The Assassination is, in fact, a much longer Assassination of a High School President, The High School Conspiracy.

Sources: IMDb, The Guardian, Babbel, Mental Floss, Insider

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