10 Movie Titles That Became Common Phrases

Throughout the years, movies have undoubtedly influenced pop culture. Whether it’s through fashion trends, catchphrases, or memorable song placements, films have the power to live on in our daily lives. Sometimes, a movie touches upon a theme so universal that the title of the film itself enters the lexicon of the English language.

Basically, what we’re talking about is a film title that outgrows the creative work it was describing in the first place, taking on a broader meaning that can be applied to real world situations. A great example of this is the word “catfish,” which (in addition to defining a whiskered freshwater fish) is now also used to describe a person who is using a fraudulent identity on the internet. Of course, this didn’t just happen randomly — the colloquial use of the term was invented while filming the 2010 documentary Catfish. Before the movie came out, someone would have been bewildered to hear the word used that way. Nowadays, when someone says they were “catfished” online, nobody blinks an eye.

In many of these cases, a phrase actually had a completely different meaning before a movie repurposed it. There was once a time when Groundhog Day simply referred to the date of February 2. Following the Bill Murray-led 1993 movie, however, the two words have come to refer to any situation that involves repeating events that seem to happen the exact same way.

Below, you’ll find 10 movies whose titles went on to take on new meaning after they were released.