A Film By Any Other Name: The Original Titles of 25 Classic Films

Lee Daniels' The Butler isn't the first movie to get a title overhaul.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

CrashGladiatorBad BoysTwilightMen in BlackScream.


Don’t be surprised the next time you cue up a movie to watch only to discover it’s not what you expected. Since the invention of celluloid, movies have recycled titles and, as long as the later movie isn’t trying to pass itself off as the earlier one, there’s usually no issue with it. But the powers-that-be at Warner Bros. didn’t see it that way when they caught whiff of Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

Having made their own movie with that exact same—albeit not very original—title back in 1916, the studio argued (and won) that Daniels should not be allowed to bestow the same moniker upon his film, based on the life of Eugene Allen, who served in the White House for 34 years. This week, audiences will need to double-up on their syllables when purchasing tickets for the film formerly known as The Butler, now much less eloquently known as Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Which is certainly less of a mouthful than Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.


Daniels' isn't the only player in the title switcheroo game. In fact, some of cinema's most beloved films have been called something else at some stage in their production. And whether the name changes came about for simplicity, secrecy, or legal reasons, it’s hard to imagine them as being anything but the iconic titles they’ve come to be known as today. Still, these are The Original Titles of 25 Classic Films.

Pacific Air Flight 121

Not Available Interstitial

There's Something About Sarah

Not Available Interstitial

Scary Movie

Not Available Interstitial

Black Mask

Not Available Interstitial

The Cut-Whore Killings

Not Available Interstitial

Batteries Not Included

Not Available Interstitial

When I Grow Up

Not Available Interstitial

Paradox

Not Available Interstitial

Blue Harvest

Not Available Interstitial

A Boy's Life

Not Available Interstitial

A Long Night at Camp Blood

Not Available Interstitial

Star Beast

Not Available Interstitial

The Babysitter Murders

Not Available Interstitial

The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night

Not Available Interstitial

Anhedonia

Not Available Interstitial

The Contender

Not Available Interstitial

Headcheese

Not Available Interstitial

Sex Crime of the Century

Not Available Interstitial

How the Solar System Was Won

Not Available Interstitial

Wimpy

Not Available Interstitial

Not Tonight, Josephine

Not Available Interstitial

Fear and Trembling

Not Available Interstitial

The Glob

Not Available Interstitial

Everybody Comes to Rick's

Not Available Interstitial

King Ape

Not Available Interstitial

Latest in Pop Culture