Why does the Harry Potter movie have a different title in England?
The first book in the Harry Potter series and the movie adaptation both have a different title in the United Kingdom. British author J.K. Rowling titled her first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and her British publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, retained that title. Scholastic later published the book in the U.S., changing the title to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and making other minor changes. When Warner Brothers — an American company — bought the movie rights, it kept the American book title. The Harry Potter in Tayside site quotes Rowling’s explanation: Arthur Levine, my American editor, and I decided that words should be altered only where we felt they would be incomprehensible, even in context, to an American
