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Sometimes on IMDB I see films which are dated like this:

Sergio Corbucci:
Night Club ................. 1989/I

Robert Rodriguez:
The Black Mamba (Short) .... 2011/I
Two Scoops (Short) ......... 2013/II

Screenshot:

enter image description here

Live links:

What does it mean? (This is my question.) I don't understand.

It doesn't seem to be a reference to the release date (1st half of the year, second half of the year), because:

Title                        Strange date    Release Date    
---------------------------------------------------------

Sergio Corbucci:
Night Club ................. 1989/I ....... 10 March 1989   

Robert Rodriguez:
The Black Mamba (Short) .... 2011/I ............. unknown
Two Scoops (Short) ......... 2013/II ........ 31 May 2013

As clearly shown here, Night Club was released in March and Two Scoops in May. March and May are both in the 1st half of the year, but the Roman numerals are different (I vs. II).

muru
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user90726
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  • Could it be directors? Doesn't Two Scoops have two (LOL)? – Darth Locke Mar 07 '18 at 18:50
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    @DarthLocke I don't think so. There are a lot of films co-directed by 2 or 3 or 4 directors, but their's dates haven't any roman numerals. By the the way, Night Club directed by only one director. – user90726 Mar 07 '18 at 18:56
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    it was just a guess, but I see we have the real answer! – Darth Locke Mar 07 '18 at 20:58
  • I thought the Roman numerals meant the quarter at first (i.e. I means in the first three months of the year etc) but apparently not. For instance, this page mentions a film saying 2008/IV, but it was released on 6 march 2008. Oh well. – Mr Lister Mar 08 '18 at 07:09

1 Answers1

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To distinguish between works with the same title and release date.

In your case, to distinguish between Night Club, by Sergio Corbucci, and Night Club, by Michael Keusch. The same thing happens with Two Scoops, just check the search link.

This is explained in their help page, as pointed out by user snow.

If two films have the same title in the same year we add a "/" followed by roman numerals after the year as necessary. For example, Twilight (2008/I) and Twilight (2008/II).

BlueMoon93
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  • Is the reason it's in the date, and not some other field, because of the "Title (Year)" format of referencing films? – Erin Anne Mar 08 '18 at 04:15
  • @ErinAnne I'm not certain, but possibly because it's less "Year" and more "Chronological ordering"? –  Mar 08 '18 at 07:00
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    I would guess that if it were in the title it could be mistaken with actual title numbering (Saw, Saw II, etc). On the date, its clearer, but im just guessing – BlueMoon93 Mar 08 '18 at 08:42
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    IMDB help page on this subject here: "If two films have the same title in the same year we add a "/" followed by roman numerals after the year as necessary" –  Mar 08 '18 at 10:47