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Isn’t it a bad idea to release two movies with similar titles in such short order? Asked that in an interview in August, Gary Barber, MGM’s chief executive, said he was not worried. “MGM has the title locked up,” he said with a smile. “They will have to change theirs.”

But the rival companies are not budging. “If ever there was a title available for general use, it is Hercules,” a spokesman for Lions Gate said on Friday. “It is not protectable.” Dozens of films with Hercules in the title have been released over the years, from “Hercules and the Big Stick” in 1910 to “Hercules,” Disney’s animated musical, in 1997.

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– http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/business/media/hercules-and-the-rival-studios.html?ref=todayspaper