History Main / TheTheTitleConfusion

* The musical ''The New Moon'' was twice filmed by Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, which dropped the definite article from the title.

* (The) Music/CapitolSteps

* The band Music/TalkingHeads were often erroneously referred to as "The Talking Heads"; they responded by naming one of their live albums ''The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads''. Amusingly, Chris Frantz, ''the band's own drummer'', botches this in the film ''Film/StopMakingSense''.

* Ships are variously referred to both with and without "the" prior to their names. For the most obvious example see the ''Titanic'', but it is not incorrect to omit "the", leading ships such as the USS ''Juneau'' to be referred to as both "''Juneau''" and "the ''Juneau''". To add to the confusion, some ships, such as USS ''The Sullivans'', have "the" as part of their actual name.[[note]]''The Sullivans'' was named after five brothers who were killed in action when the ''Juneau'' was sunk by a Japanese torpedo attack in 1942.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' makes a point of keeping the "the" when talking about him.

* ''[[Film/BadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans (The) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans]]''

* ''(The) Film/BadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans''

* ''Wizard and the Princess'', the predecessor to ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'', is known as ''The Wizard and the Princess''.

** ''ComicBook/{{Beast|MarvelComics}}'', or ''The Beast''.

** ''ComicBook/TheInvaders'', or ''Invaders''.

** ''[[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Beast]]'', or ''The Beast''.

** UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic. It's increasingly common to use "Czechia" as an alternative to avoid this trope (notably, Google Maps uses this).

* Interstate highways zig-zag this. Numbered highways take a definite article in California ("the I-10") but rarely elsewhere ("I-10" or "Interstate 10"). In Chicago, it is always "the Dan Ryan Expressway", but "Edens Expressway" and "the Edens Expressway" are both acceptable, possibly because this highway predates the interstate system. If the word "Expressway" is dropped, the definite article is always required ("I'll be taking the Dan Ryan to the Edens.")

* Ships are variously referred to both with and without "the" prior to their names. For the most obvious example see the ''Titanic'', but it is not incorrect to omit "the", leading ships such as the USS ''Juneau'' to be referred to as both "''Juneau''" and "the ''Juneau''". To add to the confusion, some ships, such as USS ''The Sullivans'', have "the" as part of their actual name.

* Back after it was built, part of the scandal surrounding the ''Los Angeles Times''' handling of the opening of Staples Center was that people from Staples and the Lakers were calling the shots on coverage surrounding it, up to mandating that it never be called ''the'' Staples Center.

* (The) [[Music/TheProdigy Prodigy]]. The cover art to ''The Fat Of The Land'' used a logo that dropped the definitive article from their name, as did artwork for singles taken from that album, but otherwise they've always officially been The Prodigy. Some further confusion is possible because of a rapper known as Prodigy, who is best known for being half of the duo Mobb Deep.

* (''The'') ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}''.

* From ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', (Music/YokoKanno and) (The) [[Music/TheSeatbelts Seatbelts]]. (There's also some ambiguity as to whether "Seatbelts" should be one word or two.)

** With the exception of the second main entry (''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin Warrior Within]]'') and an TurnBasedStrategy spin-off [[{{Interquel}} set between the first and second games]] (''VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia''), the subtitles of the ''The Sands of Time'' sub-series all begin with "The": ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime The Sands of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones The Two Thrones]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands The Forgotten Sands]]''. That said, it's quite rare to see the second game referred to as "''The Warrior Within''".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', for some reason, dropped the definite article for its sequel: ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' is a ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' spinoff cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon. ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' is a Madagascar spinoff movie not sharing continuity with the similarly named show.

* [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds The 2005 Spielberg adaptation]] of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' dropped the "The" from the title.

* Creator/CartoonNetwork started out with "the" in front of its name. ''The'' Cartoon Network is still it's legal name.

* "The macarena" is a dance. The song it's usually done to is just titled "Macarena".

* ''Film/TheNakedCity'' is an interesting case. The movie's title isn't actually shown onscreen, but rather spoken (with the definite article) in producer Mark Hellinger's opening narration. The original poster art omits the article, as does the subsequent [[RecycledTheSeries TV series]].

* ''Film/TheNakedCity'' is an interesting case. The movie's title isn't actually shown onscreen in the film, but rather spoken (with the definite article) in producer Mark Hellinger's opening narration. The original poster art omits the article, however, as did the subsequent [[RecycledTheSeries TV series]].