Same old movie, brand new title: Release, rename, repeat

So this movie...


... which, despite being a very entertaining, imaginative science fiction/action film, the sort of thing you'd think would have all the elements (major movie star, clever script, huge budget, creepy aliens) of a sure-fire summer blockbuster, didn't exactly light up the box office as expected and, despite making back its initial (and considerable investment), was regarded as a disappointment, money wise. (Having seen it in the theater, I can assure you it was not a disappointment quality-wise.) 
Many people, yours truly included, thought that the dull, by-the-numbers title "Edge of Tomorrow" couldn't have done much to draw people into the theater -- especially when the movie was based on a Japanese novel with a much more memorably oddball title...

Now, granted, maybe "All You Need Is Kill" is too grammatically weird to capture people's interest -- people in these United States, at least -- and there's always the possibility that, had the movie actually gone out with that title, it would've made even less money. But we'll never know, will we? Plus, as much as I like the sheer strangeness of "All You Need Is Kill," I have to admit it doesn't really tell you much more about what the movie is actually about than "Edge of Tomorrow" -- except, of course, for the fact that the plot involves killing. But, seeing Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt armored up and holding deadly weapons probably clued audiences into that specific fact.
Thankfully, for the video release, someone at Warner Bros. had the bright idea that the tagline on that original poster up top would be a much better title than the soap opera-worthy "Edge of Tomorrow," so when the film hits DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 7, the three words in that tagline -- which manage to (a) be intriguing and (b) sum up the actual plot of the movie -- will be featured boldly on the package. So boldly, in fact, that the movie is, in effect, being retitled for home release...


... with "Edge of Tomorrow" relegated to a small strip at the bottom after the names of the stars. So does this mean the movie has actually been given a new title? According to The Dissolve, the press release hyping the Blu-ray refers to the movie as "Edge of Tomorrow," and I'm guessing (though I'm not sure) that the actual movie itself will feature the old title onscreen. But hell, if "Live Die Repeat" gets more people to watch this movie -- which, I can't stress enough, is excellent -- then more power to the new title.
This sort of retitling isn't new, of course. No one in the world -- including George Lucas -- called "Star Wars" anything but "Star Wars" back in 1997, but somehow, with all the myriad sequels and prequels, it's become officially known as "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" -- and in that case, the wording has been changed onscreen (along with a lot of other original material, unfortunately.) And the movie once known as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is now referred to "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," though I can't remember if that particular change has been reflected onscreen. 
Every so often, a controversy will prompt a title change, like in 1999 when the shootings at Columbine resulted in the forgotten teen flick "Killing Mrs. Tingle" being renamed "Teaching Mrs. Tingle," though that was before the movie hit theaters. And 2012's "The Watch" was originally called "Neighborhood Watch" but rechristened by the time of its release to avoid being connected to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Back in the good ol' days of exploitation movies, films would be titled and retitled by exhibitors in hopes of luring the same audience into watching (and, more importantly, paying to see) the same movie multiple times. Back in January, I wrote about watching the 1956 potboiler "The Wild and Wicked" on Turner Classic Movies," not realizing that I already owned the film in a "cult classics" collection under its alternative title, "The Flesh Merchant." But my favorite example of that sort of creative retitling is what happened with the 1977 sleaze classic "Fight for Your Life"...

The film focuses on an extremely violent confrontation between a racist ex-con (William Sanderson, best remembered as Larry on "Newhart") and a black minister (Robert Judd). Packed with nasty violence and nastier language, it was released with the fairly generic title "Fight for Your Life." But it also went out to theaters in black neighborhoods with a different poster, a different trailer and a completely different title...

Dig the new rhyming tagline: "When this cat is bad, he's deadly and mean. But when he gets mad, he's a killing machine." Clearly, the producers realized that if they were going to try to sell a movie that's mostly a loudmouth racist abusing a black minister and his family (until the inevitable turning of the tables at the end), they were going to have to sell it differently. Very differently.