I love this kind of stuff: Scanning the Journal of Consumer Research — sounds boring, I know — The New York Times spies a study that finds movie audiences prefer sequels with names over those with numbers in the title:
In one study, subjects were shown a made-up movie title — Daredevil 2 or Daredevil: Taking It to the Streets — and asked to read a plot summary. Those who saw the second title spent more time reading the summary, remembered more, and rated the hypothetical movie more highly.
“People are looking for some kind of cue that the movie is dissimilar, and you can do that either through the title or through the plot,” one of the study’s authors said.
Although I now have that damned Doobie Brothers song stuck in my head, the research might help to explain the use of X-Men: The Last Stand instead of X3.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:40 am
You don’t know me, but I’m your broth**ARGH!
Damn you, Journal of Consumer Research!
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:41 am
I’d like to announce I’m officially changing my name to Dan Coyle: No Turning Back.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:52 am
Wow, it works! I already like you 1.4 times more than I did when you were just “Dan Coyle II.”
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Spider-man 2 did pretty darn good with the number…
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:07 pm
(electric boogaloo joke)
October 24th, 2006 at 7:04 am
So what happens if the movie is called “X-Men 3: The Last Stand”. Does the “3″ counteract the effect of the “The Last Stand”? Or do the two effects add together to give an even greater preference?
Someone should find out!
November 1st, 2006 at 4:47 am
The study’s author makes a pretty moronic comment there. Plainly, DD2 ist less information than DD:Tibtts so it will draw people interesting DD and people interested in Tibtts. The number of people involved in the theme “2″ is just that small.
October 8th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Interesting. However, X-Men 2 was originall called X-Men 2: Heroes United (sounds a lot like a football team consisting of super powered mutants.)
And hasn’t Daredevil 2 already been taken, Called Elektra. The actual DVD has on it ‘The sequel to the blockbuster…’ blah blah.
Would you mind if I put this news up on my blog? Here it is:
http://www.heromovie.blogspot.com
February 21st, 2013 at 8:57 pm
Hello there! This blog post couldn’t be written any better!
Looking through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept talking about this. I will send this post to him.
Pretty sure he’ll have a great read. I appreciate you for sharing!