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Sometimes on IMDB I see films which are dated like this:

Sergio Corbucci:
Night Club ................. 1989/I

Robert Rodriguez:
The Black Mamba (Short) .... 2011/I
Two Scoops (Short) ......... 2013/II

Screenshot:

enter image description here

Live links:

What does it mean? (This is my question.) I don't understand.

It doesn't seem to be a reference to the release date (1st half of the year, second half of the year), because:

Title                        Strange date    Release Date    
---------------------------------------------------------

Sergio Corbucci:
Night Club ................. 1989/I ....... 10 March 1989   

Robert Rodriguez:
The Black Mamba (Short) .... 2011/I ............. unknown
Two Scoops (Short) ......... 2013/II ........ 31 May 2013

As clearly shown here, Night Club was released in March and Two Scoops in May. March and May are both in the 1st half of the year, but the Roman numerals are different (I vs. II).

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  • Could it be directors? Doesn't Two Scoops have two (LOL)?
    – Darth Locke
    Mar 7, 2018 at 18:50
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    @DarthLocke I don't think so. There are a lot of films co-directed by 2 or 3 or 4 directors, but their's dates haven't any roman numerals. By the the way, Night Club directed by only one director.
    – user90726
    Mar 7, 2018 at 18:56
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    it was just a guess, but I see we have the real answer!
    – Darth Locke
    Mar 7, 2018 at 20:58
  • I thought the Roman numerals meant the quarter at first (i.e. I means in the first three months of the year etc) but apparently not. For instance, this page mentions a film saying 2008/IV, but it was released on 6 march 2008. Oh well.
    – Mr Lister
    Mar 8, 2018 at 7:09

1 Answer 1

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To distinguish between works with the same title and release date.

In your case, to distinguish between Night Club, by Sergio Corbucci, and Night Club, by Michael Keusch. The same thing happens with Two Scoops, just check the search link.

This is explained in their help page, as pointed out by user snow.

If two films have the same title in the same year we add a "/" followed by roman numerals after the year as necessary. For example, Twilight (2008/I) and Twilight (2008/II).

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  • Is the reason it's in the date, and not some other field, because of the "Title (Year)" format of referencing films?
    – Erin Anne
    Mar 8, 2018 at 4:15
  • @ErinAnne I'm not certain, but possibly because it's less "Year" and more "Chronological ordering"?
    – anon
    Mar 8, 2018 at 7:00
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    I would guess that if it were in the title it could be mistaken with actual title numbering (Saw, Saw II, etc). On the date, its clearer, but im just guessing
    – BlueMoon93
    Mar 8, 2018 at 8:42
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    IMDB help page on this subject here: "If two films have the same title in the same year we add a "/" followed by roman numerals after the year as necessary"
    – user43022
    Mar 8, 2018 at 10:47

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