A new breed of bottom feeder is roaming the boardrooms of Hollywood studios and attempting to score a quick buck: the title consultant. This is the guy attempting to convince producers that the reason The Shawshank Redemption failed at the box office is because its name was off-putting, not because many moviegoers prefer explosions to brutal scenes of abject hopelessness and gay gang-rape.

Seth Lockhart, one half of the marketing company TitleDoctors, describes the motivation behind his life's pursuit as such: "When movie titles don't work, studios are leaving potential earnings on the table." Lockhart swears his job is necessary, despite the fact that there's tons of evidence to the contrary:

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