10 Movies Ruined By Their Title

Mike Flanagan's new fantasy drama The Life of Chuck received strong reviews from critics and audiences alike, yet has grossed just $11.5 million globally to date.

This is a disastrous outcome for a film that won the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award and was widely touted as a potential Best Picture Oscar contender last year.

Though the tricky Stephen King adaptation was a tough film to sell to audiences without spoiling its surprises, the title absolutely did it no favours at all.

While this was also the title of King's novella, it's worth pointing out that the novella was published as part of a 2020 collection with the far more enticing title If It Bleeds.

"The Life of Chuck" is a title that doesn't really tell you anything about the film beyond the name of its central character. 

It sounds more like a straight drama than an ambitious sci-fi fantasy, which was just one of Neon's several marketing mistakes here - not least that they left the film on the shelf for almost a year after its buzzy TIFF premiere.