What Killed The Movie Poster?

Movie Posters used to be one of the mail selling points for films in Hollywood. A great poster can tell an entire movies story in a single captivating image. Though as the years progress, and IP ownership remains king, poster design has become messy and uninspired. Where have the days of Saul Bass, Bob Peak, and Drew Struzan gone? Is the art of movie poster design truly dead?

#movieposterdesign #movieposter #nerdstalgic

[HoboGaming]

I think the oversaturation plays a big part in the lost form of movie posters. Back then, you had one shot, a single chance to make an impression. Today, you have a dozen chances, and the poster is probably the last thing an audience member will think about when deciding which movie to watch.

[jonm.]

The artwork of Drew Struzan and the music of John Williams is the definition of iconic cinema. Great video as always.

[Silver_Spectre]

I think the floating head poster being more prominent is interesting because the current state of cinema is being run more by franchises rather actors

[geraldreid]

As a graphic designer, I really enjoyed this video. It's the small details in the artwork that really brings life to the image. Speaking of posters, you should check out Olly Moss. He's made some incredible movie/video game posters. He made my favorite video game cover art, Resistance 3. You should check it out.

[emilysanchez]

There's one movie poster from Spider-Man: No Way Home I truly think is a work of art. Peter has his back towards the audience looking down defeated as snow falls down on him. All around him are billboards with his face plastered saying Enemy #1. It gives soooo much weight on what the film is about.

[sijmyul]

I think the Parasite Movie Poster still has many elements of the golden era of movie posters

[PCGeines]

Here is my take: when I saw Dune, I was amazed by the movie's photography. Scenes meticulously filmed to be beautiful, memorable, and sublime. They encapsulate perfectly certain aspects of the movie because they're part of it.
So, maybe the industry could start to use movie frames as its posters, adding the name of the movie and the actors over it.

[arandomunknownuser]

I had a unit in my design uni course, where we focused a lot on movie posters. We are taught to analyse past posters and how they got the message communicated to the audience, through colours, imagery and composition etc. Thankfully we dive into such things as alternative posters as well, basically posters that are unconventional from already exiting films. basically fan art but poster form. They can appeal to nostalgia of an old film or the intrigue of something different. Please give a quick search to alternative movie posters, they are quite amazing to look at! So the designers arent just learning the same techniques, but are actually actively learning to diverge from the oversaturated designs. Its the lack of risk people are willing to take in such areas that are limiting and bland.

[anonymouschicken]

No Way Home's poster overcomplicated the poster. Spider-Man 1 and 2 from way back in the day had posters that said nothing and everything at the same time. Just the awe at seeing the spiderman against buildings during the golden hour.

[PolarisCastillo]

Teaser posters are often my favorite kind. They tend to be more conceptual, abstract and truly artistic. They aren't trying to sell you on everybody involved, a bunch of actor's faces or even the plot of the film. They're all about the concept, the mood, the mystery. It's what they don't tell you that creates hype. It's what little they tell you they creates intrigue.

Film key art posters are a work of art.

What bothers me the most is that films today will still have great key art posters, but for some reason the most basic one will grace the cover of the DVD/Bluray packaging, making for incredibly dull art direction.

[nat-rose]

The most recent movie poster I’ve loved was for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s visually stunning, but also contains so many easter eggs and in doing so portrays the chaos of the film

[vincenta]

The internet allows us to keep up with movies, the poster no longer has the weight and prominence it once had. It’s job is now dissolved into other marketing strategies.


And given the ride of franchises the purpose of instilling a story through the poster is no longer needed. We all know we are going to see the next installment of a major franchise.

[BenForGame]

That's a little weird to tell that head salad's posters are wrong when all "good old" poster are head salad but drawn by hand. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the other arguments.

[lyonspell]

I never realised how the posters have changed drastically. There are very few movie posters nowadays that I would call art.

[SaurianStudios]

This is an interesting topic to discuss since movie posters are such an under appreciated art form that not only is mean to advertise a film, but summarize the entire plot, tone, and vision of the film's story. I appreciate old style movie posters that were hand drawn, hand painted, or matte painted, just as much as I appreciate modern movie posters that are done on the computer or photoshop since technology and art evolves, but at the same time I can understand why a lot of people are fed up with the digitally made film posters of today. For me, most movie posters now lack that artistic flair to them, as they just feel like they use the same color scheme (Disney for example is obsessed with blue and orange), same format, are bloated with so many characters or elements that doesn't feel pleasing to the eye, such as most (if not all) modern day blockbusters, or feel corporate rather than artistic (look at dungeons and dragon for example). I wish we can go back to the simpler days of movie posters using few elements, a black background with a single image on it, or have a unique look to it, and I know I'm not alone when I say that. Thankfully some movie posters today do have a unique look to them that actually represents the film quite well or go back to being hand-drawn/painted, along with being pleasing to the eye as works of art.

[Ronin-ihpk]

I think one of the posters for Kong: Skull Island was really well done. The one with King Kongs' silhouette with the sunset and 5 soldiers on water forming a triangle pointing towards Kong. This might be the most recent example of a really good poster, in my opinion at least.

[SalvationCode]

The John Wick 2 poster is absolute fire. Conveys the entire plot of the film perfectly, and even foreshadows the ending with the open contract on his head. The world against John, and John against the world.

[falconsempire]

To be totally honest with myself, I never really gave it a Second thought about movie posters. I usually watch trailers to determine if I want to go and see the movies but yes, there are lots of iconic movie posters, that make you want to see the movies. Great video!

[jacobkirk]

I think what really killed me was how The Batman had tones of fantastically beautiful posters leading up to release, and then for the main poster they still went with the floating heads. Literally the worst looking poster in the selection used only because it’s “marketable”.

[demosthnes]

I feel like The Martian is one of the few good headshot posters, the “Bring him home” across Damon/Watney’s face makes it feel like some motivational poster that would actually be in that world