Zootropolis / Zootopia
This title change is a bit more of a mystery than some of the others on this list, especially as Zootopia (as it’s called in the US) was hugely successful both critically and at the box office, and given the value placed by Hollywood studios on global branding and marketing. A Disney spokesperson was quoted as explaining “In the UK we decided to change the US title to Zootropolis to merely allow the film to have a unique title that works for UK audiences.” To clarify, they’re changing the title because they’re changing the title. Is that clear? But it appears a collection of children’s songs in the U.K. (no? us neither…), as well as a well-known zoo in Denmark were enough to convince studio heads that a name change was necessary, which didn’t seem to hurt its release as it pulled in a cool £25million on its theatrical release.
