Once Upon a Time, the idea behind Sequels was created, and it was good. To differentiate sequels from original movies, the use of the simple subtitles "2", "3", and so on were used.

But then one day, some studio executives became annoyed at how utterly numerical these simple numbers sounded. They started developing new subtitles, which were often just as technically irrelevant to the actual movie as the numbers were, but hey, these words looked cool. And then everybody lived happily ever after. Well, except the creative people anyway.

...All kidding aside, Stock Subtitles do serve a useful purpose with Long Runners in that when there's several dozen iterations of an individual work, coming up with new titles can get to be a pain-in-the-neck. Additionally, on occasion the stock works do assist in explaining what the gimmick is in this iteration as compared to the other ones, especially those that mark a prequel like "The Beginning", "Origins", etc. With most works that need subtitles, differentiation is the main helpful aspect of this trope, and in that sense the trope usually works.

See also Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo when both a number and a subtitle are used, and Stock Episode Titles for frequently used TV show episode titles. See also Super Title 64 Advance and Title: The Adaptation. Can go hand in hand with Colon Cancer, since often generic subtitles are used with a well worn franchise.

Subtropes:

• Revenge of the Sequel

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Examples of Stock Subtitles:

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