American Film Titles In French Distribution

Abstract

The title is the most important part of a film marketing strategy as it captures the audience before any other movie feature. It can be interpreted as the trademark that potential viewers consider primarily when choosing a film amongst endless lists and charts. Thus, it plays a pivotal role in the further success of a film not only domestically but also worldwide when translated or adapted for various and diverse prospective audiences. There is a noticeable trend in American films when they are distributed in France; the titles remain in English but do not necessarily keep the original one. American titles of films are translated, retitled in English or keep the original title regardless of the language spoken by the target audience. In the present paper, we discuss the title decision-making process for American films that are distributed in France compared to those distributed in other French speaking territories such as Quebec by describing some common patterns in order to find out why film distributers translate some film titles but not others. We also attempt to observe how this new trend has been evolving over the last three years and how it may or may not affect the film product as a whole.