Who is paying for these increasingly terrible movie subtitles in theaters?!

The other day I was sitting through Marlowe. There were quite a few slang terms and weird idioms thrown in there, so I didn't catch everything... It might be worth giving it a shot yourself. You can find the English subtitles over at subtitles.net.

At companies like MT or Dobbin, professionals with degrees—and if I recall correctly, MT rarely hires anyone else—earn about $1.50 per minute. Where on earth are you getting a figure three times higher than that? It’s a shame, really; even that amount feels insufficient given the sheer volume of work involved.

I have no clue, honestly; I think I just read it somewhere, though I might have misremembered the details. From what I gather, those without any formal degrees end up getting something like fifty cents per line.
I can't help but feel like Dobbin only hires people without degrees because they’re absolute disasters at what they do. I’ve watched a few documentaries where the translation was actually decent, but when it comes to movies and series, they are completely lost. They don't understand how to handle the technical side of subtitling, and the actual translations are riddled with mistakes. Here is an example from a series that shows how much the text can be cut down... they really could have just deleted this bolded part. (I don't have the video right in front of me, so theoretically, I could be wrong, but this is such a frequent issue...)

"What are you doing?" - "Squats."
"I'm doing squats." That's good for the legs.

The last few times I’ve been at AMC Theatres, I’ve noticed they translated "Yes madam" as "Da madam" 😵. Like someone else mentioned, I don't need subtitles for English, but seeing stuff like this is just an eyesore.

silvertiger11 said:Does anyone else remember when Star Trek (2009) came out and Spock gave us that classic "live long and prosper" line? 😁
I almost stopped going to the movies back then because the subtitles were absolute garbage—it felt like watching one of those terrible YouTube parody dubs where they intentionally mess up the dialogue just for laughs.

PBS used to have decent translations; they actually understood the tone of what was being said. Now, I don't know, since I don't really watch TV much anymore. But FOX and the other networks have always been pretty awful at it.

I think that’s where the issue lies. Because the market isn't huge, they produce one translation intended for the entire region, and you just end up with whatever mediocre result they can scrape together.

I remember—I actually wrote the word down after leaving the theater so I could look it up on Google Translate later because I had no clue what it meant...

electricsailor13 said:Over the last ten days, I’ve caught two movies at the theater: Star Trek Beyond and Suicide Squad. The films themselves aren't exactly masterpieces, but that isn't even the main issue. The subtitles are absolutely PATHETIC!! It feels like someone just ran everything through Google Translate and hit I'm Feeling Lucky!

I don't even know where to begin; there is so much poorly translated dialogue that fails to capture the spirit of either the English or the American language. Even though I don't actually need the subtitles, I find myself watching them and comparing them to the original audio. My conclusion is simple: they completely ruined both movies with this.

Since Suicide Squad is still fresh in my mind... they translate "Boss on deck!" as "The Boss is on board!" and so on and so forth...

So, here is what I want to know:

1) Who is actually producing these subtitles?
2) How much are they paying for this work?
3) Could I offer my services for half the price?

During American Hustle at AMC Theatres, I walked out halfway through and asked for a refund because of the bad translation. I got it.

Then I complained about the translation for Still Alice, also at AMC Theatres, and they stopped working with that translator.

I recommend this to everyone. Both the movie and the translation are products you're paying for.
If it's so bad that it ruins the experience, go there, complain, ask for your money back, or send an email.

They rarely react, but they are doing it more often now because of consumer protection laws.
That's the only way we'll weed out the garbage translations.

Dobbin is the worst thing that could happen to subtitles. They hire some random student here and there, but generally, their translations are total trash.

silvertiger11 said:Does anyone else remember when Star Trek (2009) came out and Spock gave us that classic "live long and prosper" line? 😁
I almost stopped going to the movies back then because the subtitles were absolute garbage—it felt like watching one of those terrible YouTube parody dubs where they intentionally mess up the dialogue just for laughs.

PBS used to have decent translations; they actually understood the tone of what was being said. Now, I don't know, since I don't really watch TV much anymore. But FOX and the other networks have always been pretty awful at it.

I think that’s where the issue lies. Because the market isn't huge, they produce one translation intended for the entire region, and you just end up with whatever mediocre result they can scrape together.

Just checking if they'll dare to use "prosperous" again in the sequel.
I think it was the same translator.
Even though they defended the choice in the media later, they didn't risk making the same mistake twice.
I think it was Sever.

I don't know much about how they handle subtitles in theaters..
but you might not realize that almost every subtitle you see on DirecTV is actually produced by the guy who runs those big subtitle sites.
Basically, he’s just selling subtitles that other people worked hard to create for free.
On top of that, his subtitles are being used by all those smaller networks over in Mexico and Canada too.
So, what does that say about the quality?!

silvertiger11 said:Does anyone else remember when Star Trek (2009) came out and Spock gave us that classic "live long and prosper" line? 😁
I almost stopped going to the movies back then because the subtitles were absolute garbage—it felt like watching one of those terrible YouTube parody dubs where they intentionally mess up the dialogue just for laughs.

PBS used to have decent translations; they actually understood the tone of what was being said. Now, I don't know, since I don't really watch TV much anymore. But FOX and the other networks have always been pretty awful at it.

I think that’s where the issue lies. Because the market isn't huge, they produce one translation intended for the entire region, and you just end up with whatever mediocre result they can scrape together.

To be prosperous essentially means to be fruitful, productive, and successful—to achieve a high level of performance. When Spock offers that sentiment, he is essentially wishing that you reap nothing but success throughout your life.

I was watching this Canadian show on TV the other day, and they actually translated "Cry me a river" as "pay me a river"—it was honestly pretty hilarious.🤣

There are just so many literal translations like that out there—it’s honestly a mess, isn't it?