55 Famous Movies With Hilarious Working Titles You Won’t Believe Are Real

Did you know that Annie Hall was almost called It Had to Be Jew? Before it got the name we now know it by, the film was also titled Anhedonia, among many others, and many other movies have gone through a number of working titles before release.

This happens for a number of reasons. Movies like The Switch and The To-Do List originally started out with more daring titles that got switched when they went into production (like #32). Could you imagine The Baster or The Hand Job coming to a theatre new you?

Sometimes the studio just used the title as placeholder, before they came up with something else. Often the title comes from the source material — like Field of Dreams‘ original title, Shoeless Joe. Otherwise studios use working titles to throw off fanboys, which is why Captain America was called Frostbite in pre-production. But sometimes, there is no logical explanation, proof that we don’t need mistranslations to screw our titles up for us. Hollywood can do that all on their own.

Here are 55 working titles that we know by a different name. Some of them (like #5) it’s best they didn’t use, but I like to imagine a universe where I saw #40 in theatres. This is the best of all possible worlds.

1. The 13th Warrior

Eaters of the Dead

2. 50/50

I’m With Cancer

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey

How the Solar Space Was Won AND Journey Beyond the Stars

4. 2012

Farewell, Atlantis

5. Alien

Star Beast

6. American Pie

Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million That Your Reader Will Love But The Executive Will Hate AND Comfort Food

7. American Wedding

American Pie 3: Piece of Pie

8. Annie Hall

Anhedonia AND It Had to Be Jew AND Me and My Goy AND A Rollercoaster Named Desire

9. The Avengers

Group Hug

10. Back to the Future

Spaceman from Pluto

11. Back to the Future: Part II

Paradox

12. Basic Instinct

Love Hurts

13. Batman Begins

The Intimidation Game

14. Big

When I Grow Up

15. Blade Runner

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Note: This is the name of Philip K. Dick’s original story.

16. Boys Don’t Cry

Take It Like a Man

17. The Breakfast Club

The Lunch Bunch

18. Bring It On

Jump!

19. Casablanca

Everybody Comes to Rick’s

20. Child’s Play

Batteries Not Included

21. A Clockwork Orange

Chocolate Orange

22. Cloverfield

Cheese

23. Crossroads

What Are Friends For?

24. Cop Out

A Couple of Dicks

25. The Dark Knight

Rory’s First Kiss

26. Dead Ringers

Twins

Note: Also the name of an Arnold Schwarzenegger-Danny DeVito movie.

27. Dogma

Bearclaw

28. Drop Dead Gorgeous

Dairy Queens

29. E.T.

A Boy’s Life

30. Friday the 13th

A Long Night at Camp Blood

31. Hallloween

The Babysitter Murders

32. Hancock

Tonight, He Comes

33. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies

34. Hitch

The Last First Kiss

35. Joy Ride

Candy Cane AND Highway Horror AND Squelch

36. Last Action Hero

Extremely Violent

37. Letters From Iwo Jima

Red Sun, Black Sand AND Men From Mars

38. Mean Streets

Season of the Witch

39. Not Another Teen Movie

Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can’t Hardly Wait to Be Kissed

40. Obsessed

Oh No She Didn’t

Note: Oh, but if only she did.

41. Point Break

Johnny Utah

42. Pretty Woman

$3000

43. Psycho

Wimpy

Note: Also the name of a Popeye character.

44. Pulp Fiction

Black Mask

45. Reality Bites

The Real World

Note: They had to change the title when the MTV show debuted and stole it.

46. Return of the Jedi

Blue Harvest

47. Saturday Night Fever

The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night

Note: This is the name of the magazine article on which the movie was based.

48. Scream

Scary Movie

49. Some Like It Hot

Not Tonight, Josephine

50. Stepmom

Goodnight, Moon AND Class Divided

Note: One of these is a popular children’s book, which would be confusing.

51. Talladega Nights

High, Wide and Handsome

52. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Head Cheese

53. Titanic

The Ship of Dreams AND Planet Ice

54. While You Were Sleeping

Coma Guy

55. Unforgiven

The Cut-Whore Killings