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> What does the article purport them to be? Right at the top I see:

It seems to imply a concerted effort to mention the title of the movie in the script in a meta, fourth wall breaking sort of way.

In some cases that's obviously true - Hot Tub Time Machine, Suicide Squad from their examples - but other times an untitled script just needs a title and it's plucked from the script.

I think there's a distinction there, because the latter is less of an Easter Egg sort of thing and more "ok now we need a title."

> It seems to imply a concerted effort to mention the title of the movie in the script in a meta, fourth wall breaking sort of way.

It makes zero difference to the movie watching experience if the script line came from the script or the other way around. While you’re watching the movie, the effect is exactly the same. So even if you took a line of dialog to make your title, it becomes a title drop nonetheless because the audience doesn’t know (nor should they care) which came first.

> It makes zero difference to the movie watching experience if the script line came from the script or the other way around. While you’re watching the movie, the effect is exactly the same.

Certainly not true in the case of a work adapted from another source like a novel. The words "The Fellowship of the Ring" are never uttered in The Fellowship of the Ring, and Peter Jackson's ham-fisted insert there was obvious even to people who hadn't read it, but especially to those of us who have.

And, by that token, if the dialogue suddenly seems awkward and stunted for no other reason than to insert the title, most people would probably conclude that the title came first.

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> It makes zero difference to the movie watching experience if the script line came from the script or the other way around.

I disagree; if it's a quote that serves the narrative and isn't jammed in as a reference it doesn't have the same effect as the meta examples. Less of a fourth wall break.

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I don’t think anyone would regard using Barbie’s name in the movie as a title drop.
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The movie "It" neither uses title drops, nor was the title plucked from the script.