[smurda]

This is one of my favorite movies, yet it won 0 Oscars (nominated for 7) and was a box office flop (cost $25M to make and box office proceeds were $28M). It only gained popularity after the theatres from the VHS rental market.

I firmly believe part of the initial commercial failure was because of the title. With something more descriptive like, "Escape from Shawshank" or just "Prison Break" people would have been more interested to see it.

[cm2187]

For the academy awards, to its defense, it was competing against Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, or the Madness of King George. I can barely name one good movie a year these days, and certainly none that makes it to the oscars. The contrast with the 90s is brutal.

[ignoramous]

> can barely name one good movie a year these days

Not really.

Of the recent movies, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a storytelling masterpiece. Since you mentioned it, I personally rate it alongside Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

[voisin]

Train Dreams

[pavlov]

The Finnish importer tried this. They decided to call the movie “Rita Hayworth – avain pakoon”. It means “Key to the escape”…

These people would have presumably called Planet of the Apes “Distant future in Eastern United States”…

[nntwozz]

On a tangent the movie Cold Mountain (2003) was translated to "Åter till Cold Mountain" in Swedish.

Now you may ask, where is the actual translation? They just added Swedish words to the original title (which just means back to Cold Mountain".

Who are these people and how do I apply for a job? It seems like a perfect workplace.

[georgecmu]

The translations of the title (Finnish, Greek, others?) referencing Rita Hayworth make more sense if you know the title of Stephen King's novella the movie was based on (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption).

[jb1991]

What does Rita Hayworth have to do with Shawshank redemption, so much so that it would be in the title?

[karim79]

Reminds me of the Luc Besson film "Leon", which also went by the names "The Professional" and also "Leon: The Professional". A great film but there was definitely something going on in regards to getting crowds interested purely by messing with the title of the film.

[ted_bunny]

Confound: I think one of that film's themes made people deeply uncomfortable, and it was not hidden from the marketing as far as I know. I was a bit put off by its execution myself, even though there's really nothing untoward about it on a factual level.

[nopakos]

In Greece it was released as "Τελευταία έξοδος: Ρίτα Χέιγουορθ" literally "Last Exit: Rita Hayworth". People were saying, jokingly, that the title was a spoiler.

[crossroadsguy]

I wonder whether they were showing this film, with this title, in the “morning shows” :/

[jb1991]

What is the connection to Rita Hayworth?

[riffraff]

the italian dubbing was named "le ali della libertà" (the wings of freedom), which is one of the rare cases where I agree with using a different name than the original, since nobody would have clue what "Shawshank" means.

[kstrauser]

No one in the US knows, either. It’s a fictional prison and its name means nothing except to people already familiar with the story.

[pyuser583]

“The Shawshank Redemption” is a nonsense phrase in English.

“Shawshank” sounds like a place name, but why a specific place would be the source of redemption is mysterious.

The name of the source text, “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” is even more mysterious and unclear.

[6stringmerc]

In the US, my experience correlates with the rise of TNT and cable television - Ted Turner bought the rights to show certain films on his new cable channels and “Shawshank” got heavy rotation. It was akin to “background noise” sometimes. Others can probably recall the frequency.

Based on a Stephen King short story, I’m a fan. Never did catch “The Majestic” and no interest. Ebert was a national treasure, great share.

[DamnInteresting]

> With something more descriptive like, "Escape from Shawshank" or just "Prison Break" people would have been more interested to see it

That does spoil the ending a little bit though. It's like changing a certain film title to The Psychologist's Ghost.

[HeavyStorm]

In Brazil it was released as A Dream of Freedom. Gotta say it took me years to learn the original title.

[b00ty4breakfast]

As with most self-congratulatory inter-industry awards, the Oscars are mostly a joke. Obviously, lots of good films get recognition from The Academy but you can glance at the number of titles in any given year winning piles of Oscars and then disappearing into the mists of time because they were trash that hit all the buttons and played the game.

The most notorious of recent memory is Crash, a film you probably haven't heard of if you're just casually into film (or a sicko like me lol)

[haunter]

In hungarian it's translated into "prisoners of hope" (A remény rabjai) which I think is pretty good even though I despise dubbing

[dekhn]

They could have called it "An Accounting of Justice" which works in several ways at the same time.

[galkk]

Escape from Shawshank - that how the movie is called in Russian

[m463]

> With something more descriptive like, "Escape from Shawshank" or just "Prison Break" people would have been more interested to see it.

But maybe that would have killed the real market for people who wanted a deep subtle movie.

Despite its disappointing box-office returns ...

...It went on to become the top rented film of that year.

also

While finances for licensing the film for television are unknown, in 2014, current and former Warner Bros. executives confirmed that it was one of the highest-valued assets in the studio's $1.5 billion library.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption

[kgwxd]

Everyone would have expected an action movie and been even more disappointed. I loved the movie as a teenager, but as an adult, it's feels like a kids movie. I remember liking it, that's pretty much all that's interesting about it. Nothing else holds up.