Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Abroad, films the same; only the names change

MEXICO CITY — This weekend, thousands of Mexicans will line up at theaters to see “The Knight of the Night,” “Super Agent 86” and “The End of Time.”

Never heard of them?

Those are the literal translations of the Spanish titles given to “The Dark Knight,” “Get Smart” and “The Happening,” examples of the marketing tactics that can leave cinephiles baffled as Hollywood reaches out to increasingly important foreign audiences.

Depending on the nation, moviegoers are watching “Get Smart’s” Steve Carell in “Max the Menace” (France), “Agent Smart: Casino Totale” (Italy), “Is the Spy Capable or Not?” (Taiwan), or “Confused Spy” (China).

Titles are often tweaked to suit local tastes. Last year’s comedy hit “Knocked Up” was given the gentler title “Slightly Pregnant” in Roman Catholic Peru and the gloriously blunt “One Night, Big Belly” in China.

Hollywood has taken a more active role in translating its titles in recent years, says David Weitzner, a former chief of worldwide promotion for 20th Century Fox and Universal. Some films make half of their money overseas, and studios are increasingly doing “global launches” to generate buzz.

“We have to pay much more attention to the foreign market than we used to,” Weitzner says.

The translations used to be left to foreign film distributors, with dubious results. Some titles gave away key plot points, such as when “Rain Man” became “When Brothers Meet” in Latin America.

U.S. film titles for foreign movies are often odd, too. “Open Your Eyes,” a Spanish film about a man in suspended animation, became “Vanilla Sky” when it was remade with Tom Cruise.

Movie titles with a twist

Last year’s hit comedy “Knocked Up,” starring Katherine Heigl, is known as “One Night, Big Belly” in China. Other titles in foreign markets:

• “American Pie” became “American Virgin Man” in China

• “Juno” became “Run, Grow and Trip” in Mexico

• “Alien” became “The Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo” in Poland

• “Much Ado About Nothing” became “Lots of Noise and Not Many Nuts” in Latin America

• “Airplane!” became “The Unbelievable Trip on a Wacky Airplane” in Germany