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Whenever there is an error, factual or typo or otherwise, we see newspapers / books / magazines posting a corrigendum for their readers.

My question is why don't production houses / directors etc do the same for their audiences, whenever a 'goof' is discovered. I hope you get the larger sense of what I am talking about.

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    Can you provide an example of what you're talking about when you mean "a goof is discovered"?
    – MattD
    Mar 31, 2014 at 17:26
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    Go to imdb, pick any movie, chances are high you will find goofs and factual errors
    – Firee
    Mar 31, 2014 at 17:29
  • Right, goofs happen in movies all the time, but are you talking about typographical errors only, or do you mean visual ones as well? You compare it to print media, but a 'goof' can be something in print or visual with a movie. Your question can be very broad, so I'm asking you to narrow it down and provide examples to more directly assess what you're asking.
    – MattD
    Mar 31, 2014 at 17:32

2 Answers 2

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They do, sometimes, depending on what your definition of a goof is. A famous example I can think of was from the Bond movie A View to a Kill. The evil company in the film was called Zorin. As per the Wiki for the movie:

When a company with a name similar to Zorin (the Zoran Corporation) was discovered in the United States, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that Zorin was not related to any real-life company.

I imagine one of the biggest reasons why it seems they don't is that newspaper are printing real life stories and are legally accountable for any mistakes in their statistics (to give an example). Thus if they print a misleading story, action can be taken against them. Movies, being a form of entertainment, aren't subject to the same laws (which is why a movie could include a scene with whatever statistics is wanted on issues like the death penalty, or global warming, whereas a newspaper couldn't).

As for minor redactions for typos, this isn't something that tends to be an issue in film as it's the audio we hear. Mistakes in subtitles are rare and, if found, can be easily corrected with the next release of a version of a film. More serious mistakes, e.g. a digital watch being worn on the wrist of character in the Wild West don't really affect the story and would be costly to edit out - whereas in a novel version of the story, the same mistake could be rectified in minutes with the new version used in the next release.

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  • Your faith in the ability and willingness of movie companies to fix errors in subtitles is adorable. They just don't.
    – tripleee
    Dec 26, 2018 at 13:58
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The actual question is, why should they?

First of all, Andrew nails it in his answer that movies are fiction and thus any errors are within the bounds of creative freedom. There is no commitment and responsibility for truth and thus no reason for any corrigendums. The studios just have absolutely no motivation to publish their goofs. If the goof wasn't found yet, there is no interest (and likewise no obligation) to publish it by the production company. And if the goof has been found by people, there is likely no reason for the studios to list it explicitly (and maybe make it known to even more people).

In addition to that it is not always easy to define what a "goof" is. You'd be surprised (or at least I am sometimes) at what minor things people can take offence at in movies. If we then include less concrete things like plot-inconsistencies the line gets even blurrier. There are people that absolutely don't care about minor plot-inconsistencies while somebody else might regard them as downright movie-destroying errors.

And last but not least, what would such a corrigendum be? A statement saying "At minute 23:04 imagine the white van to be not there!"? It's not that it is easy to correct in the final product, and just listing it doesn't really help anyone, not even the audience (rather on the contrary, it might damage the movie experience for people who did not notice it before).

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    Nice "white van" example!! Made me grin! Mar 31, 2014 at 23:34
  • "There is no commitment and responsibility for truth and thus no reason for any corrigendums." Exactly. Apr 2, 2014 at 15:33
  • "and just listing it doesn't really help anyone" - Apart from those idiots desperately searching for "goofs".
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Apr 14, 2014 at 14:51

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