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I was thinking about the typical citation standard for referencing movies, where one writes the title and the release year, in the format "Title (Release year)" e.g. Jurassic Park (1993).

This works quite well, except if there ever is a movie which has the same name as another movie that came out during the same year.

Does there exist an example of two movies with the same name, and same release year?

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  • 1
    Not exactly an answer to your question but I thought I mention it anyway: No Strings Attached (2011) was originally titled "Friends with Benefits" but it was re-titled to avoid confusion with Friends with Benefits (2011) that was set to be released in the same year. Feb 17, 2018 at 0:00
  • The question reminds me of the correspondence between Grouch Marx and Warner Brothers concerning whether "A Night In Casablanca," would be confused with "Casablanca." I think that correspondence is included in the book The Grouch Letters.
    – Chaim
    Mar 8, 2018 at 14:26
  • 1
    I feel like Independent's Day should get an honorable mention. It fooled me at least. I was like, man, this sequel really sucks.
    – Mazura
    May 28, 2018 at 2:18
  • Related question. IMDB has a system to distinguish such movies!
    – BlueMoon93
    Mar 20, 2020 at 10:19

5 Answers 5

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It's quite rare, but yes, it has happened with Hollywood movies. One example is Chaos (2005).

Chaos (2005)

enter image description here
Action, Crime, Drama
Director: Tony Giglio
Stars: Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, Wesley Snipes
Distributed by: Capitol Films, Lionsgate

Two cops, a rookie, and a grizzled vet, pursue an accomplished bank robber.
Chaos (2005), IMDB


enter image description here
Crime, Horror, Thriller
Director: David DeFalco
Stars: Kevin Gage, Sage Stallone, Kelly K.C. Quann
Distributed by: Dominion Entertainment, Dinsdale Releasing

Two girls, looking to score some ecstasy at a rave, follow a young man to a house where terror awaits. There, a gang of felons captures and torment the girls, drawing them into a nightmare of violence.
Chaos (2005), IMDB


The way Wikipedia disambiguates or distinguishes the two is by adding a distributor of the film in with the release date:

Incidentally, Wikipedia lists the Capitol film's release date as 2006, rather than 2005, based on a German release date. Looking at the release dates for this film, you can see that this movie has been released in '05, '06, '07, '08 (in USA and UK) and '09, yet IMDB considers it a 2005 release because it was first released in 2005 in the UAE, which technically makes this fit your criteria. Another piece of trivia: the Dominion film was first (August '05, versus Capitol's December '05).

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    Sometimes it even happens that not only the title, but the exact same story is conceived to be released at the same time - one of the productions decides to postpone to not have a bad clash - for instance, search IMDB 'Jungle Book' The Andy Serkiss version was held to not fight the Disney remake. The Serkiss version is supposed to be nothing like the Disney, & a lot closer to the book. [Planet of the Apes I guess filled his time between the two ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Aug 4, 2017 at 19:51
  • @Tetsujin Yes, there are many slight variations of this phenomenon. I was particularly interested in this same name, same release date one, though, and as to "Why" I was intrigued, see my question, the first sentence. Aug 4, 2017 at 20:08
  • The real question is: "Have there ever been questions on MSE where the name of the question poster is the same as that of the answer poster?". Well, YES, of course. Feb 16, 2018 at 23:29
  • 1
    @ibrahimmahrir Stack Exchange actually encourages answering your own question, and it is by no means rare, either. Feb 17, 2018 at 12:21
  • @GhotiandChips I know, I just commented for fun. Both the question and the answer are good and interesting. Feb 17, 2018 at 16:44
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Here is another example of the movies with same name and same release year.

Night Club (1989)

Night Club poster

Genre: Comedy
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Stars: Christian De Sica, Mara Venier, Massimo Wertmüller

From IMDb,

The nightlife of young carefree friends in a wonderful 60s Rome

Night Club (1989)

Night Club 1989 poster

Genre: Drama
Director: Michael Keusch
Stars: Nicholas Hoppe, Elizabeth Kaitan, Ed Trotta

From IMDb,

A young married couple try to convert an old warehouse into a nightclub, but face opposition from both the council and local mobsters.

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Another example is two of the adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma that came out in 1996, both which retained the name "Emma".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118308/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116191/

In this case, one of them was made for Television in the UK, while the other was made for theaters in the USA.

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Black Rain (1989)

Black Rain poster

Genre: Drama
Director: Shôhei Imamura
Stars: Yoshiko Tanaka , Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara

From IMDb,

Mr and Mrs Shizuma, and their niece Yasuko, make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Five years later, Yasuko is living with her aunt and uncle, and her senile grandmother, in a village containing many of the bomb survivors. Yasuko does not appear to be affected by the bomb, but the Shizuma's are worried about her marriage prospects, as she could succumb to radiation sickness at any time.

Black Rain (1989)

Black Rain 1989 poster

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura

From IMDb,

Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he's extradited to Japan.

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In 1965, two movies about Jean Harlow, each named "Harlow" were released. One with Carroll Baker and one with Carol Lynley.

There were two TV movies called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1997.

In addition to Steven Spielberg's 2005 War of the Worlds film, there were two direct-to-video retellings of the story that year.

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