April 11, 2026 • 37 mins
Description: We dive into movies where the title is the main character—and whether that’s a good or bad marketing move.
Show Notes: Get more information at SpeakingHuman.com/MOMA
Fade In: In a world where movies rely on marketing more than ever to connect with audiences, one podcast aims to make sense of it all...
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
Show Notes: Get more information at SpeakingHuman.com/MOMA
Fade In: In a world where movies rely on marketing more than ever to connect with audiences, one podcast aims to make sense of it all...
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In a world where movies rely on marketing more than
ever to connect with audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
One podcast aims to make sense of it all.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is movies and Marketing.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Next Saturday Night? Where're sending that to the future?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Go ahead, make my day?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
How about now you're crazy Dutch past.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What we've got here is failure your mill gate.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Take them around where across all of how for we
might as well with them.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I am an fv I agent. Patrick. Here we are.
If that is even your name, your real name? Maybe
your name should have been the title of the episode.
I have a question for you. Are you ready for
(00:57):
the question? I mean, yeah, sure? Hit me?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What do you got? What's this question you're going to
ask me? On a MoMA of Movies and Marketing podcast
episode released by Speaking Human.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think people know what they're listening to. I don't
think you need to plug it while they're playing it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I feel like I got to plug it all the time.
I plug it when I'm I plug the podcast. I
should preface that. Okay, sure, anyway, so hit me with it.
What's the question?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
What do you got? All right, let's see if you
can get this one.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I think you might be able to get it straight up.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I don't know. It's challenging, but you might be able
to get it straight up. If not, I'll give you
the multiple Okay, we're going back.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We're going back a long ways.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Here, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Which horror film released in nineteen thirty one and based
on a classic novel. It's considered an early example of
a movie titled after it's character, though some might debate
exactly who that character is.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Nineteen thirty one, based on a classic novel, horror film
titled after its main character. Some might debate exactly who
that character is. Uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Would take a wild guess and say, maybe, like Dracula.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You're in the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
That's not right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, do I get multiple choice at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Or now?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You want the multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Sure, give me the easy out, all right, let.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Me give you the multiple choice.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Your choices are A Robin Hood, B Frankenstein see Peter
Pan or D Doctor Jekyl, and mister Hyde of Frankenstein.
That's right, Frankenstein.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And the reason why you said who is because technically
it's Frankenstein's mons.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, you know you got doctor Frankenstein, or you have
the creature itself, so a little little tricky then I
thought that might have tipped it over to you a
little bit. But even saying Dracula, you were right there.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean they're the age old monsters, the universal
monsters as they're called.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, yeah, buds, some might say, and you know, pretty
good for when we're going back to the thirties.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They still live on to this day. They're classics.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Ah yeah, we just just got a Frankenstein movie last year.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We actually got Bride just came out too.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, Dracula last year too. I don't think anybody saw it,
but it was it did come out.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I mean, it doesn't hold a candle to bram Stoker's Dracula,
you know with Keanu whoa.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, No, that one's wild. That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So the reason this listener's this topic popped into our
heads is because Michael I believe music can change the worlds.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Jees, spread love, joy in peace. That is what I
want the world to feel.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Magic has headed to theaters on April twenty fourth, twenty
twenty six. For those listening to it, you know, in
like twenty thirty or twenty thirty five. We're talking about
way back and just seeing that one word title got
us thinking about how often movies are named after the
person at the center of the story, and not just
(04:44):
real people either. We're talking about biopics, right, like Michael, Yeah,
those are your real guys, but we could also be
talking about fictional character movies like Napoleon, Dynamite or Coraline
or Aladdin or Beal Juice, Selma, Tarzan, could be anything.
Once you start looking for them, these title characters are
(05:07):
kind of everywhere, and today we're diving into the weird
little world of movies named after these characters.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, there's a lot of these when you start, really,
like you mentioned, once you start, it's like the matrix
once you start seeing it, like, oh my god, there
are a lot of these. Even Michael. There's an old
you know from the nineties at John Travolta movie named Michael. Right,
this isn't our first Michael.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, you know, I was thinking about this. It's kind
of risky because sometimes the audience doesn't even really know
or care about that name or the person, you know,
and it might not tell them much of anything about
the movie. So it's a little risky at times.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Especially if you have a negative association with the name. Yeah.
But before we go deeper into some name movies, we
have a little game. You know, we like to play
some games on this show, so we got kind of
a name game. We'll see if this works. The idea here.
Each of us have three movies where the title is
the main character's name, but we've renamed those movies to
(06:10):
a non name title, and we're going to give the
other person the title to see if they can guess
it from the fake title. If you can't get it
just from the title alone, then we you know that
we can provide that people who are in the movie
as clues. But whoever can get the most correct here wins.
So the example, let me give you an example to explain.
If you're like this makes absolutely no sense. Say you
(06:31):
have Forrest Gump. The alternate title could be running through History.
Not great, not terrible though, but you know you're like,
kind of that makes sense with the movie a little bit. Yeah,
So you give somebody that title. Can they guess Forrest
Gump from there? If not, then you're like, all right,
well Tom Hanks is in it? All right, Well it's
Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. You know, see if you
(06:53):
can kind of get it from there. That's kind of
the how the game is played.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, and we've taken the liberty of renaming them, almost
as if the studio chickened out and went with something
more descriptive essentially.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, So I don't know the level of how how
easy or hard do you think yours are or do
you have a variation? Uh minor?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think I think they're fairly easy. Okay, I don't know,
like it's always easier when you know the answer.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I think most of mine are pretty easy too. I
have a couple of that I'm like, oh, maybe this
is this is a little harder if I didn't know
what the movie was. We'll see how things go.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
You know, you and I do this all the time.
We're playing the games with each other right that we
have on the episode. But it's always interesting to me
how listeners come back and say that was so easy,
you know what I mean, Like, how did you not
get that? Whereas like we're we're struggling sometimes with these.
But you know, there's a lot of detectives out there.
(07:55):
There's a lot of really in the know listeners who
listen to this up this podcast. So it's cool to
hear that feedback, you know, even if it makes us
look like idiots.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. Well, in fairness, I get most questions wrong on
this show, but when I'm listening to things at home,
I know every answer to every question.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, it's hard when you're put on the spot. There's
a real challenge there.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's true, all right, do you want to give me
your first one? Yeah? So the old title for this movie.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Is the Boy Who Lived.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The Boy who Lived, The Boy who Lived?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Hm, there could be anybody, at least, you know, fifty
percent of the population, or those who didn't die the
Boy who Live?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
What is that I can give you a subtle hint
that isn't even part of the game where I'm not
going to tell you the clue of the people in it.
But I will tell you something that I know about
you which will help you, okay, is that you're not
you're not a big fan of this and we literally
just talked about it, maybe even before we aired this
(09:10):
cast to night.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh god, I wish I had a memory of any
event that took place ever before we hit record. Yeah, yeah, nothing, The.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Boy Who Lived?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I may give you an official clue yeah, give me
the official clue. I got nothing here, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
One of the actors, Emma Watson.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Harry Potter. Is it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
Is it the original?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's Harry Potter. Yeah, I'd take it's just just Harry Potter. Yeah,
I'd take any I mean, it's you know, Harry Potter.
He's the character, right, the character name.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, Daniel Radcliffe would have obviously been the other kid.
I didn't want to give you a hymn initially because
that's easy.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Time was too easy. Okay, Yeah, that was a good one.
That was that's that is funny. We were talking about that.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
We were talking about it before the cast, and you know,
for like a fan of Harry Potter, I think listeners
out there who are fans of Harry Potter would know
that immediately, like the Boy who Lived, because that's like
literally a quote, I believe.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived come to die.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Mm See. If I was more familiar with the material, right,
I would have been all over that. But to me,
I was like this, every boy who's alive is the
boy who lived.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
A boy who lived, Like all the boys who have lived.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, chock that one up for you. You got that one,
all right? Let me throw one at you. What do
you think of the Ogre's quest?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, that's got to be Shrek.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That is Shrek.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I didn't even need Michael Myers and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
No, I think we call Mike Myers. I think Michael
Myers is the killer. You didn't say Edward Murphy. Edward Murphy.
That would be funny though, So you're up one nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So the title for this movie is small town Boxer
with Big Feelings.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
This one I think I know rocky it is. It
is rocky.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Alternate to the alternate would be just simply I of
the Tiger.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh yeah, that would be a good one. Also, you know,
probably even a little easier that one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's why I didn't want to go with that one,
because then, I mean, small town boxer with big feelings
feels like it's kind of easy and but has a
little challenge to it.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I contested a little bit though, he's from Philadelphia, not
really small town.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah that's true. I guess that would be.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Big city boxer with big feelings.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Oh yeah, or just boxer with big feelings. Sounds nice, Yeah, boxer.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
With big feelings woul probably be the way to go.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, all right, how about this one. I think this,
I think you got this one, but I'll give it
to you. Think different.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Steve Jobs. That is Steve Jobs the bio Pick.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
The biopick starring Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslett and Seth
Rogan Brogan. Yeah, everything, let's think it's Seth Green.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I was like, no, not that, dude.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, this the Seths of.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The world, all the Seths.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, so your third one. The old title for this
movie is dead Guy solves his own problem.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Dead Guy solves his own problem. Yeah, that's gonna be.
Let's say, Napoleon.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How about I give you the alt of the alt,
which I know will be easier for you.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Give me the alter to the alts. Heres are hard.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
He's come for your daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, of course that gives it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Beetlejuice.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I had to do it in the voice too. I
could not do not not do that in the voice.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Dead Guy solves his own problem. Does he solve his
own problem?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean you know he does. You know he does
solve his own problem in that? Yeah, I mean you
know he's solved. Remember he says like, you got to
solve your own problems. I think didn't he say.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That, Well, I don't know if he says that.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Somebody says it to Alec.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, I think I was like, does the lady say it?
They like they're case worker.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That's a hard one.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That was a hard one. But you got it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You got it, I mean kind of got it. I
got it with a voice impression, which is which is good.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
He's come for your daughter, chick.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
You know, you throw me some challenging ones, I'll throw
you a hard one. I don't think you're gonna get
this one.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
One man War.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Rambo.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Oh my god, you got it, you mother?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, Rambo. It's actually technically Rambo First Blood Part two,
because the first one, as we know, not called Rambo.
It's called First Blood. Yeah, yeah, Rambo. Good. I'm surprised
you got that one. A lot of I feel like
a lot of there's a lot of movies that could
be one man war.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
There could be. I think that's the only one that
I would think of.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Though, John Wick, that could be a one man war.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I would call that the Baba Yaga. I would call
that something with something about the dog. Oh yeah, vengeance
for a dog, vengeance for it. Well, I think what
we learned here is in most cases, the name title
probably better.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, well, you know they do have their upsides.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean everybody would have loved dead Man solves
its own.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Problems or He's come for your daughter, Chuck, after you
watched the movie, it means more, you know, like Beetlejuice,
it's now classic, it's iconic. It's something that people know
and love and appreciate, whereas before the movie Beetlejuice wouldn't
(15:24):
have meant anything to anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, there were a couple where I was like, one
of the ones I didn't give you because I'm like,
this is this is probably two It's well, I know
it's too easy, but I'm like, it's not a bad title,
like the movie Elvis, if they would have called it
the King of rock and Roll. Yeah, it's not a
bad I mean, you still kind of get it. But
everybody knows the name Elvis, so how can you not.
And then occasionally there were some I was thinking of
(15:48):
where it's just like instead of the movie as kind
of you did with Beetlejuice, Like what if you just
take a lot like a famous line from the movie,
like Jerry Maguire becomes show me the money. You know, Yeah,
not a bad title. But you don't know until after
the movie comes out that that line is gonna be
like a catch online.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
True, and especially the people within the studio probably they
thought that was a great scene to leave in the movie,
but they never would have guessed that it would be
as a hit as it was. When that movie came out,
people were saying it all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Right, yeah, yeah, it becomes like an iconic thing. Yeah,
repeatable line. It's hard to pick that out ahead of time.
What about Osha violations in Candyland? That'd be Willy Wonka,
Willy Wonka. Yeah, oh, that's really funny.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I mean, you gotta admit a lot of problems with
that movie.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I see nothing wrong with it. I like what's going
on there. I like showing kids how to act.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, so maybe there's a million of these that would
be a lot of fun to explore, but we kept it.
We kept it to an honest three.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, I think that's good for this game. There's probably
limitations on how long you can go with that. So
the second part of this is we each kind of
picked out a movie named after the main character to
talk about and you know why it works or doesn't work,
and you know how they kind of marketed the movie
a little bit. What was your movie? You've kind of
grabbed for this your spotlight.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So I didn't mean to cheat a little on this,
but this was part of my game. Mine is Rocky?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
H Okay? Yeah, isn't thing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
This is one of the best uses of a character
named title in my opinion, because Rocky tells you almost
nothing like we said on paper, but emotionally it tells
you everything wants. The marketing kicks in. It's short, it's punchy,
it sounds tough, it feels like a contender before you
even know the plot. And the marketing really did the rest.
(17:55):
You know, the posters, the trailers, the underdog framing of
the training imagery and everything that surround the movie. It
built it into a brand, and it became bigger than
the guy. It became shorthand for grit and perseverance and
sweat and stares. Stares, maybe even raw eggs if you
(18:17):
were a boxer. But the title works because the character
is the product. You're not just selling the boxing movie.
You're selling this guy, his personality and his struggle and
you know, his rise. Would a more descriptive title had
have helped. I think maybe if the movie were unknown
and terrible, but the character is so strong, and he
(18:39):
became timeless because of how simple the title of the
movie is, you know. I mean it was an emotional story. Yes,
everybody loves an underdog story. But if that movie had
been called The Philadelphia Underdog, it just wouldn't be the same.
It would sound like a made for TV sports drama
or something, you know, So I would say rock Rocky
(19:00):
has got all the right ingredients of that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah. What I like about that one too, is the
name itself kind of has connotations as a word. You know,
it's like a rocky road. It's a tough path to
get there, So you kind of have feelings a little
bit in advance, even before you know anything about it,
you know, just seeing that word and seeing the imagery
which I can picture in my mind just immediately, the
(19:25):
like poster of Rocky on the steps with his like
hands raised in the air. It's so hard to separate now,
especially something like Rocky that's really been embedded in your
head for like decades to try to think about how
that was when you knew nothing about this and you're
just like, here's this guy. He's like got his hands up.
This is some kind of like sports story, I guess,
But who is this Rocky?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, And you're right. You know, the name has so
many other connotations that fit the movie and the character
and the struggle that he went through and all of that.
You know, so there's so many layers to that even
without knowing who that character is yet. And then once
you see the story, then it becomes something sort of
(20:08):
it transcends the original meaning of the word, right, like
you said, Rocky, like this path that he took, the
ups and downs that he had, then it becomes more
about the perseverance of that. It's just such a good
example of you know, the named character title movie.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Interesting thing about that too is you know that came
out nobody knew who Stallone was, so you didn't even
have that kind of connection. A lot of these movies
where they're like name movies that are really relying heavily
in the marketing on the star. You know, you think
about like a Jerry Maguire or a Forrest Gump where
john Wick. You know, Rambo was even after Stallone was
(20:46):
like famous, but Aaron Brockovich, They're like, really leading, we
got a big star for this.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The name is them.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
This is all about this character and Rocky was doing this.
But it was like, nobody knows who this guy is.
So it's not just like come see it because you
know hot alone, because nobody knew him.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
At that point.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I didn't even look this up, but it was huge
hit one hundred and seventeen million.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's probably accurate. I think it was the biggest movie
of its year.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, I mean, you know, that's lifetime, so I guess
they're taking into account something else.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
But good old.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Rocky small hey, small time Philadelphia boxer, not small town.
That's what I should have done with There you go
a small time. He was very small time. I think
it's a clear winner, right in terms of it was
the best choice and the name helped the marketing in
this case.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Was that's a good question, was the name of a
positive if it had what did you say, like the
Philadelphia underdog? Would that name have helped it more? Initially
because people have been like, okay, I know what this is.
Were people who just knew nothing about it, Like Rocky,
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, but at the time, seventy six, I think Rocky
it was a simple name. This kind of story also
seemed like it was of the time. If you had
this movie today, would this movie be as successful? I
don't think it would.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, I don't think so. But we've also had this
movie so many times, you know what I mean. Yeah,
at the time, it was something kind of fresh. But yeah,
I don't know. I don't know that. I could say
the name helped. The name became iconic, you know, over time,
but I don't know that it Initially the marketing I
don't know that it was like what a positive this
is called Rocky. But I think the fact that you know,
(22:29):
Stallone became a star off this. He wrote the movie's
titled after him, They made all these sequels. It definitely
became a boom. Initially, I'm sure marketing this.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Was like, how are we gonna what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, especially because there's been eleven movies now.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So that's insane.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think it helped. Let's just say it helped.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I mean, looking, it's almost impossible to divorce yourself from
the history that's in, you know, behind us.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, unless we go back in time.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Be fun to go back in time and talk to
somebody and be like, what do you think about this
movie that's.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Coming out, and be like, Rocky.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't know what that is, Like who's this guy?
So for mine, you know, I went with something a
little more recent and a different type of movie. I
went with the movie.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Borat oh okay.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
From two thousand and six. This one obviously named after
the main character in the movie. This entire movie kind
of revolves around this guy and this story about how he,
you know, comes to America from a different country, and
the kind of comedy that ensues as he interacts with people.
Some of its kind of you know, real life hidden
camera stuff. Big Hit made a lot of money. Some
(23:42):
people consider it one of the great comedies of our time.
This I think worked because the whole movie is just
this guy right interacting with people. It's not a plot
heavy movie. There's not even like, you know, Rocky, you
have like this underdog story. Borat's more just like this
is him, his behavior, his interaction, basically letting this character loosen.
(24:05):
The comedy kind of flying from there. So I think
the name got people curious a little bit, but it
was also like, what is this is this? Is this
a comedy? You even like, look at the poster? Is
this a foreign film? I think that's why they tacked
on the subtitle it's Borat Colwan Cultural Learnings of America
(24:27):
for make benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstun, which you know,
then you get an indication, Okay, this is a comedy
but a little you know, a little more challenging. But
one of the things that was kind of a boom
for the marketing was they had kind of Borat appearing
different places, you know, in interviews and stuff like that.
(24:48):
Sasha Baron Cohm was in this character doing like TV
appearances stuff like that. So it's kind of getting the
audience a chance almost like I can't separate is this
a real person or not?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And then once the movie got going again, the word
of mouth, the quotes, everything like that kind of spreading
rapidly around. I don't know, what do you think of
this one? What do you think of this this name?
And obviously the benefit and the challenge here.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Here's the thing, like I think the campaign for this
movie where he was doing all his TV appearances and
like going out to places and like, you know, showing
his outrageous personality, you know, as this character m It
wasn't really asking do you want to see this movie?
It was like have you seen this insane guy yet?
(25:37):
I feel like that's what people were asking, is this
is insane. It just seems weird and crazy. And that's
kind of how they built something into the name itself,
because nobody really knew what that was. We're at it's
not really selling the plot or anything like that, but.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It's a comedy, so there and there really isn't much
of a plot.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, and that's okay. It's like Rocky said, you don't
know what it is, so that that name doesn't mean
anything up front. It was really the marketing that really
sold it, I think, because it was kind of like
how Tom Green would do really weird things, you know,
around his movies and people would be like, oh, he's
like a crazy comedian. He just says off the wall things.
(26:19):
This is kind of how this was. It felt very
much like the actor was selling the character so that
people knew what they were walking into.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah. Again, I go back to the language a little
bit though, too. You have this word. Obviously to Americans,
it's like a strange word. But Borat, we've got bor
you know, which could be like the word meaning like
an obnoxious person, a bore. And then you have rat
also in there. So just these like little associations and
language that you're like subconsciously making. And if you look
(26:51):
at this, just like Rocky, it's an unusual name, which
kind of peaks the curiosity as opposed to like a
Michael or a Joe, right, plus Rocky five letter words,
so they kind of roll off easy. You know, it's distinct,
make some kind of memorable, and then you know they're
just these little things you kind of read into these
words a little subconsciously. I think they could have called
(27:13):
it the Uncomfortable International Chaos Tour. They could have called
it that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He definitely haunted pop culture for a while.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Oh yeah, there were bad impressions going around for at
least another a decade after this.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
You know my name a boot At.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You loved Borat, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I still love Boratt. I still think Borat is hilarious.
I saw this movie in a theater that was so
packed I had to like sit in the front row,
like falling off the left side because there was just
no seats left in there. It just played like crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
It sounds like a good time, and it also left
an impression with you being in there with all those
people that were people laughing hysterically. Was it that kind
of audience?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Oh yeah, riotously? I mean non, it was on stop laughter.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
See, I didn't see it in the theater, So that's
probably why I don't have as much love for Borat
as you do.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And even on when it was on DVD. Then this
is one of those movies we would watch kind of
over and over, like be and my friends.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
H that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
And it's very unique in that you don't really know
what to expect when you hear the name. But then again,
like I think all character title names, you know unless
you know who it's about. Like so if it's a
real person versus a fictional character, like people didn't really
know anything about Shrek.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's true. Unless you're relying on a big actor to
kind of bring something to it that people are like, oh, Okay,
this guy, this star, I know what kind of they're
bringing to it. A little bit, you usually have no idea.
You're just like, oh, what is that about Jack Reacher.
I guess there's something there because there's the novels that
people were familiar with that so maybe not a great example.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I mean Aaron Brockovich, she's a real person, but no,
he really knew about her. I mean, these are all
names that like, until you've seen the movie, then you
create a connection with that character's name. Even if it's
a real person, they're not really a character, they're a
real person.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah. I guess the one thing you get when you
when you get one of those titles, the one thing
you know is you're gonna be I'm gonna be digging
in with this person. I'm following this person. I'm diving
in with them. It's I'm not going to see a
movie where I'm like following twenty five characters. It's this
this person and me like, this is who I'm hanging
with the whole time, for better or worse. For better, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
You want to see a movie about Amadeis, go see Amedeis.
So we hope that this makes a lot of sense
to you as a listener, But there's probably a zillion
movies out there. I know there's a zillion movies out
there that we haven't even touched on. What's one that
you love? Leave us feedback because we'd love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, what's your what's your favorite character title movie? I
gotta say, we go on a list of these movies.
This almost always works for me. Mm hmm, Like almost
every time a movie is like titled after the main character.
Maybe I'd have to look deeper to find the ones
I don't like, because almost every time when we're doing this,
I guess because you're just really digging into the character.
(30:21):
I almost always like these movies.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, it's kind of hard to judge them and say
that they don't work. Maybe there's this, like there's a
confidence to that movie when you name it after the character,
You know what I mean? Yeah, that confidence is like
the studio saying this is solid, we have to name
this after the character. Maybe that's what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
I think it usually starts with the script and they're
just like we're hanging with this person, We're going the
whole way with them. I think we need more of them,
Give me more, give me, like John Smith Fall twenty
twenty seven, Shad Connolly Coming Somewhere twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I'd go see it.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean it does sound I mean, I've told you
this before you got that name. You know, it's almost
like a secret agent Connelly.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
We didn't even didn't even mention this. James Bond, very
well known characters. None of his movies are James Bond.
You know. They all have actual titles or different, non
non character named titles.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, that's why we couldn't include them. Otherwise that might
have been better than Rocky, might have been the quin
essential right there.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, just surprising. They never you know, even the first
one wasn't called James Bond.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
H So the thing we've been doing, and we like
to do, we talk a little bit about upcoming movies
or pieces of movie marketing that we've seen out in
the ether. What have you seen out there, Shad, What
are you excited about right now?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I don't, you know, I didn't really have a thing
that's coming that I wanted to spotlight. But what what
I'm excited about what's going on right now is the
box office is buzzing right now. We've got at this
moment of recording anyway. You know, Project tail Mary opened
big and only dropped like thirty percent the second weekend,
(32:15):
which is pretty crazy. So that movie's doing Gangbusters doing,
I think, much better than both of us predicted. It's
going to do higher than that. We've got a super
Mario Brothers movie opening, which is going to make a
lot of green play really good with the kids. We've
got an a twenty four movie opening, We've got a
bunch of smaller horror movies out. I feel like we're
just we're going. We're at a pretty good point in
(32:36):
terms of like the diversity of stuff we have released
and the you know, numbers we're getting at the box office.
I feel like movies are back. People are going, young
people are going, and I'm just I'm feeling good about it.
I hope it continues, especially into the summer. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I think we're ready for this, right, We've been ready
for a resurgence. We had a hand full of years
were tough. We didn't know what was going on. We
were a little.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Scared, slim pickens. In terms of movies, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm super excited about some of the stuff that's coming
out right now, like unique movies, sometimes stories that we
haven't seen before, or you know, it's maybe just just
a new way to tell the same kind of story.
There's a lot of people out there and say, nothing's new, Yeah,
it's all been done. Yeah, which you know, Okay, I
(33:27):
get it. Formulas are very much of the same sometimes
and things like that. But it's kind of exciting also.
You know, I was trying to remember exactly what we
predicted on our project hill Mary, but I think did
I overshoot you a little?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You did? You were higher than me, so I might
be closer. You went a little higher than or you know,
you went higher than me domestic and I went higher worldwide.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I think is what happened.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I see, So we might both win in this one.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, we're probably gonna end up splitting in terms of that.
I mean, it's been out for like less than two weeks,
and it's already at one hundred and seventy seven million
in the US alone.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And it doesn't have any challengers this weekend, and this
is the holiday weekend.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, it's got the Super Mario Brothers movie. Yeah. I
don't know if that's taking Imax screens it might be.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, but nobody cares about that movie. I mean, everybody
knows that as soon as I say that about an
animated movie.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
It goes through the roof.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, the biggest box office you know movie that's ever.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So here's what I will say. I sent this over
to you via Slack recently. I'm really interested in this.
The End of Oak Street official teaser.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
I think our helps, our neighborhood, our whole street has moved.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Oh my god, Ron, this is a movie that's got
Anne Hathaway, Ew and McGregor. It's due out in August
of this year. Let me just tell you the little
plot summary. This may or may not be the official
(35:23):
plot summary, by the way, depending on where you go,
but it's about a mysterious cosmic event that rips Oak
Street from suburbia and transports a neighborhood to someplace unknown.
It surrounds the Platte family, who soon discovers that their
very survival depends on sticking together as they navigate there
(35:44):
now unrecognizable surroundings. The End of Oak Street anyway looks
really interesting. Don't know what it's about, don't know why
I want to see it.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I kind of do. Yeah, it's unique in that way.
I think it looks good. Produced by Jja Brim's fingerprints
on it. Definitely has a little bit of a Spielberg
vibe to it. Yeah, I like that it's coming out
in August two. I think this could be you know,
that's like usually like a slower period. I like that
there's a movie like kind of staking its claim. I
(36:15):
could be like a weapons was last year and just
played pretty well. Could be a sleeper pick in our
summer movie draft.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It's true. It fits right there at the end, doesn't it. Yeah,
this one could be fun. But I think all in all,
it's pretty exciting out there right now with movies.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, we got a lot cooking up, and again we're
just getting to the tip of the summer movie season.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
The tip of the summer movie spear. Some might say,
all right, well, we we love you guys out there
listening to the episodes, but that's it for movies and
marketing until next time. Let's fade to black.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I would be back. He's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Eight
In a world where movies rely on marketing more than
ever to connect with audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
One podcast aims to make sense of it all.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is movies and Marketing.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Next Saturday Night? Where're sending that to the future?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Go ahead, make my day?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
How about now you're crazy Dutch past.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What we've got here is failure your mill gate.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Take them around where across all of how for we
might as well with them.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I am an fv I agent. Patrick. Here we are.
If that is even your name, your real name? Maybe
your name should have been the title of the episode.
I have a question for you. Are you ready for
(00:57):
the question? I mean, yeah, sure? Hit me?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What do you got? What's this question you're going to
ask me? On a MoMA of Movies and Marketing podcast
episode released by Speaking Human.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think people know what they're listening to. I don't
think you need to plug it while they're playing it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I feel like I got to plug it all the time.
I plug it when I'm I plug the podcast. I
should preface that. Okay, sure, anyway, so hit me with it.
What's the question?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
What do you got? All right, let's see if you
can get this one.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I think you might be able to get it straight up.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I don't know. It's challenging, but you might be able
to get it straight up. If not, I'll give you
the multiple Okay, we're going back.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We're going back a long ways.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Here, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Which horror film released in nineteen thirty one and based
on a classic novel. It's considered an early example of
a movie titled after it's character, though some might debate
exactly who that character is.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Nineteen thirty one, based on a classic novel, horror film
titled after its main character. Some might debate exactly who
that character is. Uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Would take a wild guess and say, maybe, like Dracula.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You're in the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
That's not right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, do I get multiple choice at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Or now?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You want the multiple choice?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Sure, give me the easy out, all right, let.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Me give you the multiple choice.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Your choices are A Robin Hood, B Frankenstein see Peter
Pan or D Doctor Jekyl, and mister Hyde of Frankenstein.
That's right, Frankenstein.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And the reason why you said who is because technically
it's Frankenstein's mons.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, you know you got doctor Frankenstein, or you have
the creature itself, so a little little tricky then I
thought that might have tipped it over to you a
little bit. But even saying Dracula, you were right there.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, I mean they're the age old monsters, the universal
monsters as they're called.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, yeah, buds, some might say, and you know, pretty
good for when we're going back to the thirties.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They still live on to this day. They're classics.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Ah yeah, we just just got a Frankenstein movie last year.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
We actually got Bride just came out too.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, Dracula last year too. I don't think anybody saw it,
but it was it did come out.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
I mean, it doesn't hold a candle to bram Stoker's Dracula,
you know with Keanu whoa.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, No, that one's wild. That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So the reason this listener's this topic popped into our
heads is because Michael I believe music can change the worlds.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Jees, spread love, joy in peace. That is what I
want the world to feel.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Magic has headed to theaters on April twenty fourth, twenty
twenty six. For those listening to it, you know, in
like twenty thirty or twenty thirty five. We're talking about
way back and just seeing that one word title got
us thinking about how often movies are named after the
person at the center of the story, and not just
(04:44):
real people either. We're talking about biopics, right, like Michael, Yeah,
those are your real guys, but we could also be
talking about fictional character movies like Napoleon, Dynamite or Coraline
or Aladdin or Beal Juice, Selma, Tarzan, could be anything.
Once you start looking for them, these title characters are
(05:07):
kind of everywhere, and today we're diving into the weird
little world of movies named after these characters.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, there's a lot of these when you start, really,
like you mentioned, once you start, it's like the matrix
once you start seeing it, like, oh my god, there
are a lot of these. Even Michael. There's an old
you know from the nineties at John Travolta movie named Michael. Right,
this isn't our first Michael.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, you know, I was thinking about this. It's kind
of risky because sometimes the audience doesn't even really know
or care about that name or the person, you know,
and it might not tell them much of anything about
the movie. So it's a little risky at times.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Especially if you have a negative association with the name. Yeah.
But before we go deeper into some name movies, we
have a little game. You know, we like to play
some games on this show, so we got kind of
a name game. We'll see if this works. The idea here.
Each of us have three movies where the title is
the main character's name, but we've renamed those movies to
(06:10):
a non name title, and we're going to give the
other person the title to see if they can guess
it from the fake title. If you can't get it
just from the title alone, then we you know that
we can provide that people who are in the movie
as clues. But whoever can get the most correct here wins.
So the example, let me give you an example to explain.
If you're like this makes absolutely no sense. Say you
(06:31):
have Forrest Gump. The alternate title could be running through History.
Not great, not terrible though, but you know you're like,
kind of that makes sense with the movie a little bit. Yeah,
So you give somebody that title. Can they guess Forrest
Gump from there? If not, then you're like, all right,
well Tom Hanks is in it? All right, Well it's
Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. You know, see if you
(06:53):
can kind of get it from there. That's kind of
the how the game is played.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, and we've taken the liberty of renaming them, almost
as if the studio chickened out and went with something
more descriptive essentially.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, So I don't know the level of how how
easy or hard do you think yours are or do
you have a variation? Uh minor?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think I think they're fairly easy. Okay, I don't know,
like it's always easier when you know the answer.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I think most of mine are pretty easy too. I
have a couple of that I'm like, oh, maybe this
is this is a little harder if I didn't know
what the movie was. We'll see how things go.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
You know, you and I do this all the time.
We're playing the games with each other right that we
have on the episode. But it's always interesting to me
how listeners come back and say that was so easy,
you know what I mean, Like, how did you not
get that? Whereas like we're we're struggling sometimes with these.
But you know, there's a lot of detectives out there.
(07:55):
There's a lot of really in the know listeners who
listen to this up this podcast. So it's cool to
hear that feedback, you know, even if it makes us
look like idiots.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. Well, in fairness, I get most questions wrong on
this show, but when I'm listening to things at home,
I know every answer to every question.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, it's hard when you're put on the spot. There's
a real challenge there.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It's true, all right, do you want to give me
your first one? Yeah? So the old title for this movie.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Is the Boy Who Lived.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
The Boy who Lived, The Boy who Lived?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Hm, there could be anybody, at least, you know, fifty
percent of the population, or those who didn't die the
Boy who Live?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
What is that I can give you a subtle hint
that isn't even part of the game where I'm not
going to tell you the clue of the people in it.
But I will tell you something that I know about
you which will help you, okay, is that you're not
you're not a big fan of this and we literally
just talked about it, maybe even before we aired this
(09:10):
cast to night.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh god, I wish I had a memory of any
event that took place ever before we hit record. Yeah, yeah, nothing, The.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Boy Who Lived?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I may give you an official clue yeah, give me
the official clue. I got nothing here, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
One of the actors, Emma Watson.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Harry Potter. Is it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
Is it the original?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's Harry Potter. Yeah, I'd take it's just just Harry Potter. Yeah,
I'd take any I mean, it's you know, Harry Potter.
He's the character, right, the character name.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, Daniel Radcliffe would have obviously been the other kid.
I didn't want to give you a hymn initially because
that's easy.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Time was too easy. Okay, Yeah, that was a good one.
That was that's that is funny. We were talking about that.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
We were talking about it before the cast, and you know,
for like a fan of Harry Potter, I think listeners
out there who are fans of Harry Potter would know
that immediately, like the Boy who Lived, because that's like
literally a quote, I believe.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived come to die.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Mm See. If I was more familiar with the material, right,
I would have been all over that. But to me,
I was like this, every boy who's alive is the
boy who lived.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
A boy who lived, Like all the boys who have lived.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, chock that one up for you. You got that one,
all right? Let me throw one at you. What do
you think of the Ogre's quest?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, that's got to be Shrek.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That is Shrek.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I didn't even need Michael Myers and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
No, I think we call Mike Myers. I think Michael
Myers is the killer. You didn't say Edward Murphy. Edward Murphy.
That would be funny though, So you're up one nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So the title for this movie is small town Boxer
with Big Feelings.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
This one I think I know rocky it is. It
is rocky.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Alternate to the alternate would be just simply I of
the Tiger.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Oh yeah, that would be a good one. Also, you know,
probably even a little easier that one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That's why I didn't want to go with that one,
because then, I mean, small town boxer with big feelings
feels like it's kind of easy and but has a
little challenge to it.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I contested a little bit though, he's from Philadelphia, not
really small town.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah that's true. I guess that would be.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Big city boxer with big feelings.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Oh yeah, or just boxer with big feelings. Sounds nice, Yeah, boxer.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
With big feelings woul probably be the way to go.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, all right, how about this one. I think this,
I think you got this one, but I'll give it
to you. Think different.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Steve Jobs. That is Steve Jobs the bio Pick.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
The biopick starring Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslett and Seth
Rogan Brogan. Yeah, everything, let's think it's Seth Green.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I was like, no, not that, dude.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, this the Seths of.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The world, all the Seths.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, so your third one. The old title for this
movie is dead Guy solves his own problem.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Dead Guy solves his own problem. Yeah, that's gonna be.
Let's say, Napoleon.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How about I give you the alt of the alt,
which I know will be easier for you.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Give me the alter to the alts. Heres are hard.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
He's come for your daughter.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, of course that gives it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Beetlejuice.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I had to do it in the voice too. I
could not do not not do that in the voice.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Dead Guy solves his own problem. Does he solve his
own problem?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean you know he does. You know he does
solve his own problem in that? Yeah, I mean you
know he's solved. Remember he says like, you got to
solve your own problems. I think didn't he say.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That, Well, I don't know if he says that.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Somebody says it to Alec.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, I think I was like, does the lady say it?
They like they're case worker.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That's a hard one.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That was a hard one. But you got it.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You got it, I mean kind of got it. I
got it with a voice impression, which is which is good.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
He's come for your daughter, chick.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
You know, you throw me some challenging ones, I'll throw
you a hard one. I don't think you're gonna get
this one.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
One man War.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Rambo.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Oh my god, you got it, you mother?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, Rambo. It's actually technically Rambo First Blood Part two,
because the first one, as we know, not called Rambo.
It's called First Blood. Yeah, yeah, Rambo. Good. I'm surprised
you got that one. A lot of I feel like
a lot of there's a lot of movies that could
be one man war.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
There could be. I think that's the only one that
I would think of.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Though, John Wick, that could be a one man war.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I would call that the Baba Yaga. I would call
that something with something about the dog. Oh yeah, vengeance
for a dog, vengeance for it. Well, I think what
we learned here is in most cases, the name title
probably better.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, well, you know they do have their upsides.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean everybody would have loved dead Man solves
its own.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Problems or He's come for your daughter, Chuck, after you
watched the movie, it means more, you know, like Beetlejuice,
it's now classic, it's iconic. It's something that people know
and love and appreciate, whereas before the movie Beetlejuice wouldn't
(15:24):
have meant anything to anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, there were a couple where I was like, one
of the ones I didn't give you because I'm like,
this is this is probably two It's well, I know
it's too easy, but I'm like, it's not a bad title,
like the movie Elvis, if they would have called it
the King of rock and Roll. Yeah, it's not a
bad I mean, you still kind of get it. But
everybody knows the name Elvis, so how can you not.
And then occasionally there were some I was thinking of
(15:48):
where it's just like instead of the movie as kind
of you did with Beetlejuice, Like what if you just
take a lot like a famous line from the movie,
like Jerry Maguire becomes show me the money. You know, Yeah,
not a bad title. But you don't know until after
the movie comes out that that line is gonna be
like a catch online.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
True, and especially the people within the studio probably they
thought that was a great scene to leave in the movie,
but they never would have guessed that it would be
as a hit as it was. When that movie came out,
people were saying it all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Right, yeah, yeah, it becomes like an iconic thing. Yeah,
repeatable line. It's hard to pick that out ahead of time.
What about Osha violations in Candyland? That'd be Willy Wonka,
Willy Wonka. Yeah, oh, that's really funny.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I mean, you gotta admit a lot of problems with
that movie.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I see nothing wrong with it. I like what's going
on there. I like showing kids how to act.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, so maybe there's a million of these that would
be a lot of fun to explore, but we kept it.
We kept it to an honest three.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, I think that's good for this game. There's probably
limitations on how long you can go with that. So
the second part of this is we each kind of
picked out a movie named after the main character to
talk about and you know why it works or doesn't work,
and you know how they kind of marketed the movie
a little bit. What was your movie? You've kind of
grabbed for this your spotlight.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So I didn't mean to cheat a little on this,
but this was part of my game. Mine is Rocky?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
H Okay? Yeah, isn't thing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
This is one of the best uses of a character
named title in my opinion, because Rocky tells you almost
nothing like we said on paper, but emotionally it tells
you everything wants. The marketing kicks in. It's short, it's punchy,
it sounds tough, it feels like a contender before you
even know the plot. And the marketing really did the rest.
(17:55):
You know, the posters, the trailers, the underdog framing of
the training imagery and everything that surround the movie. It
built it into a brand, and it became bigger than
the guy. It became shorthand for grit and perseverance and
sweat and stares. Stares, maybe even raw eggs if you
(18:17):
were a boxer. But the title works because the character
is the product. You're not just selling the boxing movie.
You're selling this guy, his personality and his struggle and
you know, his rise. Would a more descriptive title had
have helped. I think maybe if the movie were unknown
and terrible, but the character is so strong, and he
(18:39):
became timeless because of how simple the title of the
movie is, you know. I mean it was an emotional story. Yes,
everybody loves an underdog story. But if that movie had
been called The Philadelphia Underdog, it just wouldn't be the same.
It would sound like a made for TV sports drama
or something, you know, So I would say rock Rocky
(19:00):
has got all the right ingredients of that.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah. What I like about that one too, is the
name itself kind of has connotations as a word. You know,
it's like a rocky road. It's a tough path to
get there, So you kind of have feelings a little
bit in advance, even before you know anything about it,
you know, just seeing that word and seeing the imagery
which I can picture in my mind just immediately, the
(19:25):
like poster of Rocky on the steps with his like
hands raised in the air. It's so hard to separate now,
especially something like Rocky that's really been embedded in your
head for like decades to try to think about how
that was when you knew nothing about this and you're
just like, here's this guy. He's like got his hands up.
This is some kind of like sports story, I guess,
But who is this Rocky?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, And you're right. You know, the name has so
many other connotations that fit the movie and the character
and the struggle that he went through and all of that.
You know, so there's so many layers to that even
without knowing who that character is yet. And then once
you see the story, then it becomes something sort of
(20:08):
it transcends the original meaning of the word, right, like
you said, Rocky, like this path that he took, the
ups and downs that he had, then it becomes more
about the perseverance of that. It's just such a good
example of you know, the named character title movie.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Interesting thing about that too is you know that came
out nobody knew who Stallone was, so you didn't even
have that kind of connection. A lot of these movies
where they're like name movies that are really relying heavily
in the marketing on the star. You know, you think
about like a Jerry Maguire or a Forrest Gump where
john Wick. You know, Rambo was even after Stallone was
(20:46):
like famous, but Aaron Brockovich, They're like, really leading, we
got a big star for this.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
The name is them.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
This is all about this character and Rocky was doing this.
But it was like, nobody knows who this guy is.
So it's not just like come see it because you
know hot alone, because nobody knew him.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
At that point.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I didn't even look this up, but it was huge
hit one hundred and seventeen million.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's probably accurate. I think it was the biggest movie
of its year.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, I mean, you know, that's lifetime, so I guess
they're taking into account something else.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
But good old.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Rocky small hey, small time Philadelphia boxer, not small town.
That's what I should have done with There you go
a small time. He was very small time. I think
it's a clear winner, right in terms of it was
the best choice and the name helped the marketing in
this case.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Was that's a good question, was the name of a
positive if it had what did you say, like the
Philadelphia underdog? Would that name have helped it more? Initially
because people have been like, okay, I know what this is.
Were people who just knew nothing about it, Like Rocky,
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, but at the time, seventy six, I think Rocky
it was a simple name. This kind of story also
seemed like it was of the time. If you had
this movie today, would this movie be as successful? I
don't think it would.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, I don't think so. But we've also had this
movie so many times, you know what I mean. Yeah,
at the time, it was something kind of fresh. But yeah,
I don't know. I don't know that. I could say
the name helped. The name became iconic, you know, over time,
but I don't know that it Initially the marketing I
don't know that it was like what a positive this
is called Rocky. But I think the fact that you know,
(22:29):
Stallone became a star off this. He wrote the movie's
titled after him, They made all these sequels. It definitely
became a boom. Initially, I'm sure marketing this.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Was like, how are we gonna what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, especially because there's been eleven movies now.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So that's insane.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think it helped. Let's just say it helped.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I mean, looking, it's almost impossible to divorce yourself from
the history that's in, you know, behind us.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, unless we go back in time.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Be fun to go back in time and talk to
somebody and be like, what do you think about this
movie that's.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Coming out, and be like, Rocky.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't know what that is, Like who's this guy?
So for mine, you know, I went with something a
little more recent and a different type of movie. I
went with the movie.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Borat oh okay.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
From two thousand and six. This one obviously named after
the main character in the movie. This entire movie kind
of revolves around this guy and this story about how he,
you know, comes to America from a different country, and
the kind of comedy that ensues as he interacts with people.
Some of its kind of you know, real life hidden
camera stuff. Big Hit made a lot of money. Some
(23:42):
people consider it one of the great comedies of our time.
This I think worked because the whole movie is just
this guy right interacting with people. It's not a plot
heavy movie. There's not even like, you know, Rocky, you
have like this underdog story. Borat's more just like this
is him, his behavior, his interaction, basically letting this character loosen.
(24:05):
The comedy kind of flying from there. So I think
the name got people curious a little bit, but it
was also like, what is this is this? Is this
a comedy? You even like, look at the poster? Is
this a foreign film? I think that's why they tacked
on the subtitle it's Borat Colwan Cultural Learnings of America
(24:27):
for make benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstun, which you know,
then you get an indication, Okay, this is a comedy
but a little you know, a little more challenging. But
one of the things that was kind of a boom
for the marketing was they had kind of Borat appearing
different places, you know, in interviews and stuff like that.
(24:48):
Sasha Baron Cohm was in this character doing like TV
appearances stuff like that. So it's kind of getting the
audience a chance almost like I can't separate is this
a real person or not?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And then once the movie got going again, the word
of mouth, the quotes, everything like that kind of spreading
rapidly around. I don't know, what do you think of
this one? What do you think of this this name?
And obviously the benefit and the challenge here.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Here's the thing, like I think the campaign for this
movie where he was doing all his TV appearances and
like going out to places and like, you know, showing
his outrageous personality, you know, as this character m It
wasn't really asking do you want to see this movie?
It was like have you seen this insane guy yet?
(25:37):
I feel like that's what people were asking, is this
is insane. It just seems weird and crazy. And that's
kind of how they built something into the name itself,
because nobody really knew what that was. We're at it's
not really selling the plot or anything like that, but.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
It's a comedy, so there and there really isn't much
of a plot.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, and that's okay. It's like Rocky said, you don't
know what it is, so that that name doesn't mean
anything up front. It was really the marketing that really
sold it, I think, because it was kind of like
how Tom Green would do really weird things, you know,
around his movies and people would be like, oh, he's
like a crazy comedian. He just says off the wall things.
(26:19):
This is kind of how this was. It felt very
much like the actor was selling the character so that
people knew what they were walking into.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah. Again, I go back to the language a little
bit though, too. You have this word. Obviously to Americans,
it's like a strange word. But Borat, we've got bor
you know, which could be like the word meaning like
an obnoxious person, a bore. And then you have rat
also in there. So just these like little associations and
language that you're like subconsciously making. And if you look
(26:51):
at this, just like Rocky, it's an unusual name, which
kind of peaks the curiosity as opposed to like a
Michael or a Joe, right, plus Rocky five letter words,
so they kind of roll off easy. You know, it's distinct,
make some kind of memorable, and then you know they're
just these little things you kind of read into these
words a little subconsciously. I think they could have called
(27:13):
it the Uncomfortable International Chaos Tour. They could have called
it that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He definitely haunted pop culture for a while.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Oh yeah, there were bad impressions going around for at
least another a decade after this.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
You know my name a boot At.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You loved Borat, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I still love Boratt. I still think Borat is hilarious.
I saw this movie in a theater that was so
packed I had to like sit in the front row,
like falling off the left side because there was just
no seats left in there. It just played like crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
It sounds like a good time, and it also left
an impression with you being in there with all those
people that were people laughing hysterically. Was it that kind
of audience?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Oh yeah, riotously? I mean non, it was on stop laughter.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
See, I didn't see it in the theater, So that's
probably why I don't have as much love for Borat
as you do.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
And even on when it was on DVD. Then this
is one of those movies we would watch kind of
over and over, like be and my friends.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
H that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
And it's very unique in that you don't really know
what to expect when you hear the name. But then again,
like I think all character title names, you know unless
you know who it's about. Like so if it's a
real person versus a fictional character, like people didn't really
know anything about Shrek.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's true. Unless you're relying on a big actor to
kind of bring something to it that people are like, oh, Okay,
this guy, this star, I know what kind of they're
bringing to it. A little bit, you usually have no idea.
You're just like, oh, what is that about Jack Reacher.
I guess there's something there because there's the novels that
people were familiar with that so maybe not a great example.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
I mean Aaron Brockovich, she's a real person, but no,
he really knew about her. I mean, these are all
names that like, until you've seen the movie, then you
create a connection with that character's name. Even if it's
a real person, they're not really a character, they're a
real person.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah. I guess the one thing you get when you
when you get one of those titles, the one thing
you know is you're gonna be I'm gonna be digging
in with this person. I'm following this person. I'm diving
in with them. It's I'm not going to see a
movie where I'm like following twenty five characters. It's this
this person and me like, this is who I'm hanging
with the whole time, for better or worse. For better, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
You want to see a movie about Amadeis, go see Amedeis.
So we hope that this makes a lot of sense
to you as a listener, But there's probably a zillion
movies out there. I know there's a zillion movies out
there that we haven't even touched on. What's one that
you love? Leave us feedback because we'd love to hear that.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, what's your what's your favorite character title movie? I
gotta say, we go on a list of these movies.
This almost always works for me. Mm hmm, Like almost
every time a movie is like titled after the main character.
Maybe I'd have to look deeper to find the ones
I don't like, because almost every time when we're doing this,
I guess because you're just really digging into the character.
(30:21):
I almost always like these movies.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, it's kind of hard to judge them and say
that they don't work. Maybe there's this, like there's a
confidence to that movie when you name it after the character,
You know what I mean? Yeah, that confidence is like
the studio saying this is solid, we have to name
this after the character. Maybe that's what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
I think it usually starts with the script and they're
just like we're hanging with this person, We're going the
whole way with them. I think we need more of them,
Give me more, give me, like John Smith Fall twenty
twenty seven, Shad Connolly Coming Somewhere twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I'd go see it.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean it does sound I mean, I've told you
this before you got that name. You know, it's almost
like a secret agent Connelly.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
We didn't even didn't even mention this. James Bond, very
well known characters. None of his movies are James Bond.
You know. They all have actual titles or different, non
non character named titles.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, that's why we couldn't include them. Otherwise that might
have been better than Rocky, might have been the quin
essential right there.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, just surprising. They never you know, even the first
one wasn't called James Bond.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
H So the thing we've been doing, and we like
to do, we talk a little bit about upcoming movies
or pieces of movie marketing that we've seen out in
the ether. What have you seen out there, Shad, What
are you excited about right now?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I don't, you know, I didn't really have a thing
that's coming that I wanted to spotlight. But what what
I'm excited about what's going on right now is the
box office is buzzing right now. We've got at this
moment of recording anyway. You know, Project tail Mary opened
big and only dropped like thirty percent the second weekend,
(32:15):
which is pretty crazy. So that movie's doing Gangbusters doing,
I think, much better than both of us predicted. It's
going to do higher than that. We've got a super
Mario Brothers movie opening, which is going to make a
lot of green play really good with the kids. We've
got an a twenty four movie opening, We've got a
bunch of smaller horror movies out. I feel like we're
just we're going. We're at a pretty good point in
(32:36):
terms of like the diversity of stuff we have released
and the you know, numbers we're getting at the box office.
I feel like movies are back. People are going, young
people are going, and I'm just I'm feeling good about it.
I hope it continues, especially into the summer. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I think we're ready for this, right, We've been ready
for a resurgence. We had a hand full of years
were tough. We didn't know what was going on. We
were a little.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Scared, slim pickens. In terms of movies, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm super excited about some of the stuff that's coming
out right now, like unique movies, sometimes stories that we
haven't seen before, or you know, it's maybe just just
a new way to tell the same kind of story.
There's a lot of people out there and say, nothing's new, Yeah,
it's all been done. Yeah, which you know, Okay, I
(33:27):
get it. Formulas are very much of the same sometimes
and things like that. But it's kind of exciting also.
You know, I was trying to remember exactly what we
predicted on our project hill Mary, but I think did
I overshoot you a little?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You did? You were higher than me, so I might
be closer. You went a little higher than or you know,
you went higher than me domestic and I went higher worldwide.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I think is what happened.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I see, So we might both win in this one.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, we're probably gonna end up splitting in terms of that.
I mean, it's been out for like less than two weeks,
and it's already at one hundred and seventy seven million
in the US alone.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And it doesn't have any challengers this weekend, and this
is the holiday weekend.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Well, it's got the Super Mario Brothers movie. Yeah. I
don't know if that's taking Imax screens it might be.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, but nobody cares about that movie. I mean, everybody
knows that as soon as I say that about an
animated movie.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
It goes through the roof.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, the biggest box office you know movie that's ever.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So here's what I will say. I sent this over
to you via Slack recently. I'm really interested in this.
The End of Oak Street official teaser.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
I think our helps, our neighborhood, our whole street has moved.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Oh my god, Ron, this is a movie that's got
Anne Hathaway, Ew and McGregor. It's due out in August
of this year. Let me just tell you the little
plot summary. This may or may not be the official
(35:23):
plot summary, by the way, depending on where you go,
but it's about a mysterious cosmic event that rips Oak
Street from suburbia and transports a neighborhood to someplace unknown.
It surrounds the Platte family, who soon discovers that their
very survival depends on sticking together as they navigate there
(35:44):
now unrecognizable surroundings. The End of Oak Street anyway looks
really interesting. Don't know what it's about, don't know why
I want to see it.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
I kind of do. Yeah, it's unique in that way.
I think it looks good. Produced by Jja Brim's fingerprints
on it. Definitely has a little bit of a Spielberg
vibe to it. Yeah, I like that it's coming out
in August two. I think this could be you know,
that's like usually like a slower period. I like that
there's a movie like kind of staking its claim. I
(36:15):
could be like a weapons was last year and just
played pretty well. Could be a sleeper pick in our
summer movie draft.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It's true. It fits right there at the end, doesn't it. Yeah,
this one could be fun. But I think all in all,
it's pretty exciting out there right now with movies.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, we got a lot cooking up, and again we're
just getting to the tip of the summer movie season.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
The tip of the summer movie spear. Some might say,
all right, well, we we love you guys out there
listening to the episodes, but that's it for movies and
marketing until next time. Let's fade to black.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I would be back. He's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Eight
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