Alternate Titles With Entirely Different Meanings Are Given To Movies After Being Dubbed Into Another Language

Words matter, and people are drawn to a variety of different expressions. Some cultures respond more to certain phrases and wordings; it all depends on past experiences and the environment in which people live. Naturally, naming conventions will differ in each country because, despite speaking the same language, cultural and slang differences must always be taken into consideration.

Movies with the potential to reach worldwide audiences must be very flexible in order to attract as many viewers as possible. Their original name might be the best available, but to appeal to specific audiences, that name sometimes has to change.

This can often mean a drastic alteration that neither sounds nor looks anything like the original title. However, as long as it works, that should not really matter. Coincidentally, in some rare cases, a movie may have the exact same name in another country, and to avoid confusion, a simple change is made so that audiences are not misled.

Scroll down to check out some of the most bizarre movie name changes; you would not be able to recognize most of these if it weren't for the posters. Some of them are quite funny too!

1. Home Alone

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2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

It could be related to recent terror attacks.

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3. The Hangover

I guess it kind of makes sense.

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4. Silver Linings Playbook

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5. Annie Hall

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6. Harry and the Hendersons

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7. The Peanuts Movie

The U.K. distributors wanted a stronger association with the characters.

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8. Leon

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9. Live Free or Die Hard

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10. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

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11. The Shawshank Redemption

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12. Pretty Woman

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13. Snatch

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14. The Avengers

A popular British TV show from 1961 to 1969 was named 'The Avengers', so they added 'Assemble' to the title to differentiate them.

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15. Neighbors

Australia's longest-running soap opera is called 'Neighbours', so in order to avoid confusing audiences, the name had to change slightly.

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16. Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch was originally an American adaptation of a 1997 British movie about soccer. However, the American version changed the sport to baseball.

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17. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

J.K. Rowling changed the name from 'Philosopher's Stone' to 'Sorcerer's Stone' so that American children would find it more magical, and in case they didn't know what 'philosopher' meant.

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18. Airplane

They changed the name from 'Airplane' to 'Flying High' in Australia and New Zealand because another American movie named 'Airport 80' was set to be released around the same time. 

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19. 13 Going On 30

The name change is due to the expression 'going on' not being common in Australia.

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20. Zootopia

According to a Disney spokesperson, 'Zootopia' changed to 'Zootropolis' to have a unique name that works for UK audiences.

Walt Disney Studios

21. Breaking Bad

I mean, he is a Meth Dad after all.

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Things get lost in translation, but to successfully reach a worldwide audience, you're forced to make adaptations and changes that will make it much easier for everyone to understand what the movie is all about.

Although some of these names are quite odd, you would never be able to guess which movie it was just from the name alone. Maybe that's what they were going for in some of the movie posters above.

Regardless, it was interesting to see some of these movie title changes. The world is so diverse and different, and it's refreshing to see things like this.