Some movie titles stick with us, many are meant to grab our attention and all should give us some sense of the story we are about to see. But what's in a title? How important is a title really? If you ask a studio executive, the best title would be one that has a “2” after it. Meaning a follow up to a highly successful film property.
That's a given, but what about those first movies, and the thousands of independent movies that get produced each year? To properly study this, we have to go back to the 50's, 60's and 70's. This was the height of the drive-in era, which led the way for exploitation films. That is when independent companies like American International Pictures and producers like Roger Corman would make low budget movies that often promised more in the poster and title than the movie delivered.
Movie's with titles like The Beast With A Million Eyes (1955), I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) And The Fast and the Furious (1954). Yes, you read that right. Long before the massive Universal Studios franchise, that title raced across movie screens. That was one of the many movies Roger Corman made that was released through American International Pictures (AIP).
Neal Moritz, one of the producers of The Fast and the Furious (2001) was planning this full throttle car movie and he said “We need a title like AIP would have done in the past.” That old title from the 50's jumped out at him. The next step was to work things out with Roger Corman so they could use the title. They were able to trade top quality stock footage in exchange for bringing back that title in a big bad way.(1)
It did not take long for AIP and Corman to earn a solid reputation with exhibitors and movie theaters. They were eager to screen their next hit movie. Sometimes they would just start with a great title and poster campaign and then write the movie around it.
Famously, Roger Corman pre-sold War Of The Satellites (1958) based on the the title alone, largely do to the space race in America that was making headlines. With the deal freshly inked, he scrambled to have a screenwriter write the script in a few weeks and then quickly produced the movie.
The modern day equivalent of starting with a perfect title and poster is using SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) Basically, this is using analytics to pick a title that yields high internet search results. Having a title and subject that ranks high for SEO is a big advantage. That is what the producers and distributors I worked with on my first feature Cam-Girl were well aware of.
People tend to search the term “Cam Girl” or "camgirl" on the internet, go figure. This certainly helped generate over three hundred thousand views for our movie trailer and encouraged people to watch Cam-Girl for free on Tubi, Youtube or to buy the Blu-Ray/ DVD on Amazon. Being aware of this new form of marketing is essentially for filmmakers and creatives alike.
This was part of my consideration when I wrote a new Action/Comedy screenplay titled Rage Moms. Not only is this a buzz term that grabs attention, it fits the story and the turbulent times of the year 2020. I'd want to see a movie titled Rage Moms, wouldn't you?
While the free wheeling Drive-in theater days are long gone, independent production companies like The Asylum continue to carry the torch. The example we all know about it Sharknado (2013), a wild, two million dollar smash hit which spawned a franchise for The Asylum and SYFY network.
Sharknado started on the strength, or some would say absurdity of the title. There was a circuitous route to get it made however. Several years prior, Anthony C. Ferrante pitched Sharknado to The Asylum, they passed on this initially. But Anthony still loved that title, it stuck with him. So he wrote a reference to a “Sharknado” into the dialogue of Red Clover (2012), AKA Leprechaun's Revenge. When an executive at SYFY watched that movie and heard this line they thought it would be a great idea foe a movie.
SYFY eventually talked with The Asylum about their desire to make a movie titled “Sharknado.” Now that money people had the idea, it is no surprise that The Asylum wanted to move ahead. They went out to actors such as the leads Tara Reid and Ian Ziering with the title of “Dark Skys.”
This came back to bite them one day on set when some of the actors heard the title would actually be Sharknado. It briefly shut down production because they did not want to be in a movie with that title... at the time. From there, the rest is history. For more great incite you can read my interview with Thunder Levin, the screenwriter of Sharknado on OCmoviereviews here.
Similar to Sharknado, another way to know you have a winning title is if it grabs your attention and tells you what the hook of the high concept movie is. Examples would be Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Death Race 2000 (1975), Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Snakes on a Plane (2006). That last one in particular has a very interesting story behind the title.
The original draft of Snakes on a Plane was sent around town with the title of “Venom” in 1995. Legend has it, the title became Snakes on a Plane when studio executives were joking around after hours talking about the craziest scripts that were making the rounds in Hollywood. The project eventually landed with New Line in 1999 and was pitched around as Snakes on a Plane.
Famously, Samuel Jackson agreed to star in the movie as soon as he heard the title. Later, Jackson insisted that title not be changed after he was attached. This is the exact opposite of the Sharknado title conflict. It begs the question, would these movies still have been hits without these shocking titles? We'll never truly know, but one thing's for sure, the people involved with these movies do not want to go back in time to find out.
- Curt Wiser is a Writer/Filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He also works in Visual Effects and writes Movie Reviews/Journalism for OCmoviereviews.com.
(sources: 1: Entertainment Weekly 5/25/2016 by Darren Franich)
