There's A Trope For That: Week of September 16th

This week's trope: Franchise Driven Retitling

"Sometimes people come up with a name that is perfectly reasonable for a work but is not reasonable for a franchise and with a new franchise being built, they have to go back and rename the work for all future promotional materials.

This can often come about because the title of the first work depends heavily on an element in that work but not in the others. Possibly, the executives have chosen a theme to market and name the series (such as the lead character's name) and the early installment is the odd man out.

Naturally this can be happening when you have a first work that nobody was sure was going to be popular and so they didn't think of a franchise when naming it. It can also happen during an adaptation process- book series often also only pick up a series name much further down the line, often unofficially, and often don't bother with this process. When they come to being adapted to another medium, somebody will have plans for a franchise but not a name."

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I don't care if studios want to re-title their movies and franchises, but here's the thing... I will never be able to call an established movie by its "new" name. My brain just doesn't work that way. It's bad enough I have to get used to my friends having new last names when they marry. Half the time I write their maiden name on Christmas cards by mistake. I don't need any of this "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" stuff. How many words are in that title? TOO MANY! As far as I'm concerned, the Indiana Jones movie titles are as follows:

1. Raiders

2. Temple

3. Last Crusade

4. The one with the refrigerator

True Indy fans will know what you're referring to. And really, that's all that matters.