Our Least Favorite Trends in Movie Posters
The seven deadly sins of film poster design
Once upon a time, in a land, far far away, before social media influencers, Insta-ads, and streaming services (like, ahem, Tribeca Shortlist)… movie posters were a major part of what made you go to the movies.
Yes, physically go to the movies, be it in the local theater for a new release, or down the street to the local Blockbuster for your Friday night VHS fix. (Streaming killed the video store and all that — unless you live in Alaska, in which case you can maybe “see Russia from your house” and peruse row after row of rental movies to your heart’s content.)
“In the 1970s and in the 80s, illustrated poster art was everywhere. [At the video store], the actual video cases themselves lined up in rows for miles, and when you’re a kid, they looked like this endless art gallery of really cool, really lurid stuff,” explains Rue Morgue magazine editor-in-chief Dave Alexander in the new documentary 24X36: A Movie About Movie Posters (now streaming on Tribeca Shortlist).
“These are amazing images that just transport you away to fantastic worlds, and they promise you a great escape, a great adventure.”
Except, of course, when they don’t — million-dollar marketing budgets be damned! For every awe-inspiring piece of art created for the likes of modern day movie poster classics a la A Clockwork Orange, Jaws, E.T. or Raiders of the Lost Ark, there’s a blatant Photoshop fail or tired design trope to match. Back in 2011, the clearly clever French blogger and film distributor Christophe Courtois even went so far as to put together a series of incredible collages of overused movie poster clichés by genre.
What kind of clichés abound, exactly? Entirely too many, but we’ll narrow it down. Here, we present our seven least favorite, all-too-common examples of bad movie poster design trends that you’ve likely seen again and again (and again) — whether you’ve noticed them or not.
Fear of the Floating Head
“Forget about art, don’t get artists, just Photoshop, take pictures. A big face, that’s what people want to see: big tits, big face — shit, this really sucks,” poster artist David Byrd hilariously laments to the 24X36 cameras.
Nothing but a big star portrait — or three big star portraits, floating, disembodied, in a row, if you’ve got a truly packed cast — to be found here in these clearly-quick-to-make beauties that let you know who’s in the movie, but not necessarily what the movie is about … except that it’s likely a drama (The Town, Aviator, Bridge of Spies). If there’s a beach in the background, you will cry (The Last Song, City of Angels); if the poster is monochrome with a pop of color, you’re in for action (Armageddon, Ghost Rider, pretty much every ’90s Tom Cruise movie).
More recently, think the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan. Yes, it’s clearly a drama. But besides that, what is this movie about, exactly? Hell if I know, after looking at the poster.
Just Text Me the Tagline
A cousin of the almost-omnipresent floating head, these star-portrait-based posters feature a close-up of a film’s main character overlaid with a wall of text.
In these cases, the picture on the poster is almost irrelevant, besides letting you know the star du jour — and that they are, clearly, very important. But what will you be watching them do, exactly? No image parsing needed to determine that mystery; in the case of, say, Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network, George Clooney in Michael Clayton, or Colin Firth in The King’s Speech the text will step in to answer that pesky question.
All About Orange and Blue
Orange and blue, the movies are coming for you —it’s complementary color theory, run amok. Over the years, movies, their trailers, and subsequently, their posters, have adopted the contrasting colors in the hopes of making themselves “pop” just a little bit more.
Why orange and blue, exactly? Because pretty much all movies have one thing in common: people. And people, as TV Tropes explains, “range from pale pinkish yellow to dark brown” — i.e., various shades of orange. Glance across ye ole color wheel from our aforementioned orange, and you will find — you guessed it — blue. (Blame the Coen brothers’.)
The Serious, Silhouetted Hero
Here, we present to you the serious action hero! He is usually faced away from the camera (Blade, Captain America), but not always (Superman Returns, Spiderman 3), and he is always in shadow. Because he is put upon, he is brooding, and he will save the day — his own way.
Serious Silhouettes — Now, with Side-Boob
See the above, but add in an element of somewhat sexist seduction. The standard female action hero (this summer’s wonderfully record-breaking Wonder Woman being a celebrated exception) will adhere to all of the tropes succumbed to by her male counterparts, with a few notable add-ons. She will be scantily clad, and she will generally be facing towards you. Because clearly, she wants you … to buy a ticket to her movie and stop objectifying her all the damn time before she kicks your ass, but we digress. See: Resident Evil, Underworld, and Laura Croft: Tomb Raider, to start.
Lean on Me
Contemporary movie posters must communicate their film’s premise in a matter of seconds, and yes oh yes that has impacted poster design.
“When the Raiders of the Lost Ark poster came out, we were all standing in line waiting to get into the film, there was time to sit and stare at it,” Anchor Bay Entertainment’s former marketing director, Susan Curran, explains in 24X36. “Now, things are tiny. You’re looking at them on your iPhone, you’re looking at them on your computer screen, your tv screen … you have such a short amount of time to get somebody’s attention and make them commit to your project … whatever it is, you have to be able to read it in ten seconds, or you’re not going to get that click.” And when it comes to rom-coms, she says, that means “it’s two lovebirds.”
Your (still generally hetero) leads, will inevitably be leaning against each other, more often than not on a bright white, light and friendly, utterly uncomplicated background. The list is long: Pretty Woman, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Two Weeks’ Notice, The Ugly Truth, Four Christmases, and oh so much pre-McConaissance Matthew McConaughey (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Failure to Launch). I’m sorry to say that we have barely scratched the surface of this one.
Open Your Eyes
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but when it comes to movie posters, they’re largely a (rather trite) window to horror films: Candyman, Friday the 13th, The Grudge, Seed of Chucky. 2008’s Jessica Alba-starring The Eye may get a pass, because hey, it’s right there in the title, they literally couldn’t help themselves, but it falls readily in line as well. Requiem for a Dream and Blindness likewise embrace the ocular, and while they’re not horror movies, per se, they certainly contain their fair share of the horrible — poor design choices notwithstanding.
