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[Cheryl Lad]

 Will I be infringing on an existing film title by naming my new film by the same name as an existing film

[TataBox]

If someone has exisiting rights in the name, you would have a problem.  You should federal search and see if that is the case.   If not, then there still could be plenty of state issues.    There are a ton of TMs for Superman and Gladiator.

Dont you think it would be odd if Gladiator was out in the movies theaters, a while ago, then now I am producing a movie called the Gladiator?  I can tell you, it has been done plenty of times before.   Currently, "The Longest Yard", "Sabrina", etc.   But I think that might be different because it was a remake of the first film, so maybe some copyright issues were involved.

I didnt see a TM for the movie "Cant Hardly Wait", but did see one for "Exorcist: The Begining".

[Isaac]

Generally speaking, the titles of books and movies do not serve as trademarks and are not protectable intellectual property.  

Using a name to designate a series of books can be a trademark usage with the canonical example being "XXX for dummies"

And yes it is possible that a book title might include a trademark where the trademark was developed through use of the mark other than as a book title.  In that case, copying the title might result in trademark infringement.

I think an application of these principles explains the results in the examples pointed to by Inhibitor.

[JSonnabend]

I think TBI's analysis is wrong but his practical conclusion might be correct nonetheless.  

Isaac, on the other hand, is correct in stating that movie titles as such are not generally protectable as trademarks.  Regardless, you'd be inviting trouble by proceeding on your proposed course of action (as far as I understand it), as there may be other legal theories or even tm "back door" rights asserted against you.

- Jeff

[TataBox]

I didnt to an analysis.  I didnt answer the question.  I just talked about practicalities.