The Problem With Modern Movie Posters

[@DoktorSkipper]

What's your favorite movie poster?

[@FrostyFrosto]

Star Wars (any of the OT posters)

[@rylan_24]

Godzilla vs Kong

[@theangryone6266]

9

[@Skits25899]

Probably the morbius poster

[@JustQuilted]

The Dark Knight (2008

[@EvolutionSquare]

Here's the weird thing (to me): As stated in the video, movie posters aren't important anywmore, for getting butts in the seat. So if their influence doesn't make a blip on ticket sales, WHY are they so commercial instead of artistic? It seems movie posters, nowadays, have their biggest impact on collectors. The posters become a (minor) peripheral purchase, alongside the ticket, instead of a means to an end. In that context, it makes no sense to me that modern posters are about as artistic as a McDonald's menu board.

[@ND62511]

Because to be artistic requires effort, and these corporations want to churn out all of their movies with the littlest amount of effort needed in order to ensure the highest amount of money that goes to their pockets.

[@lenny_boxx4206]

one simple explanation effort = not commercial

[@hadiabdul9266]

pretty sure some actors also have clauses in their contracts stating their face must appear in the movie's posters

[@hydroquakev]

It actually might have something to do with something not mentioned in the video at all: Streaming. Movie posters are still the main thing you see when scrolling through streaming services. So eye catching posters will get more people to watch the trailer or the show. More people watching = retaining subscribers

[@BlazeAlbino]

Hi Evo!

[@numburger]

The Jurassic World poster genuinely looks like one of those mock movie posters of like a video game or something circa 2012 DeviantArt

[@Lanevix]

I mean it was fan made, so yea ig....

[@vipahxxx7640]

Yeah lol

[@stare4539]

Frr

[@waspanimations7037]

Yeah Probably because it's not even official

[@numburger]

@@waspanimations7037 Really ?

[@Jorge-IRL]

Can we talk about just how awful Netflix movie posters are? They’ll ditch the original movie poster art in favor of a screenshot of one of the more famous actors in the movie, and most of the times, that actor isn’t even the main character!

[@eli0h]

Netflix cambia la miniatura de acuerdo a tus gustos. Si ves muchas peliculas de perros y si en tal pelicula hay un perro, pondrán una miniatura del perro aunque no tenga un rol importante.

[@BunnyOnASnuman]

@@eli0h Posta? Epiquisimo Translated: Netflix changes thumbnail depending on your interests. For example, if you watch a lot of dog movies and the movie you're looking has a dog, it will display a scene with the doggo, even if it doesn't have a main role in the movie.

[@eli0h]

@@BunnyOnASnuman haha thanks for the translation but i do know english, by his name i could tell he knows spanish and that's why i wanted to do it that way

[@BunnyOnASnuman]

@@eli0h yeah but not everyone reading the comments know. I didn't see the username so it was really weird seeing an English comment being responded by a Spanish answer

[@ClaudetteVioletta]

Tall Girl: YeS

[@snookerwither9955]

When Drew Struzan was asked to do a poster for "The Thing", he wasn't given any images from the film to work with, so he just came up with something quick and simple and sent it to the filmmakers. They used it and it is now one of the most iconic posters ever made.

[@Chimunculous]

And he painted it overnight. The paint was still wet when it was placed under glass and photographed at the studio, which is why there are splodges of white on there in places. If you're interested in Drew, I highly recommend the documentary 'Drew: The Man Behind The Poster'.

[@snookerwither9955]

@@Chimunculous I've seen it! That's what got me into his art, I now have his book "Oeuvre" which has some great prints of his posters and other work. Thank you for recommending it though!

[@BlazeManProject]

Yeah and the movie flopped at the boxoffice

[@benhawk4214]

​@@BlazeManProjectdoesn't matter, the poster goes hard

[@ioannad1857]

went down in film history as a classic sci-fi with a great poster tho @@BlazeManProject

[@ryatt9365]

9:23 This poster would be goated if they just had the T-Rex silhouette with the amber ring around it. Clean, simple, striking, iconic design. Just less subtle than the original's poster.

[@skycreeper0173]

Same. I really like the amber design for the logo.

[@giovannieusebi955]

An adventure 63 million 29 years in the making

[@rexy7340]

That was the movie poster. This was a different one released after the movie. The same with fallen kingdom. All of the Jurassic park films have the same poster format as the original for marketing.

[@JPOG7TV]

Here’s the thing, there’s an alternative poster without the actors in it and it looks so good. I think it was used in my local cinema too. Shame that the actual movie isn’t as good as the Amber logo.

[@Moodboard39]

bingo

[@davewrobleski4803]

I really like the alt poster for Sonic 2, the one where Robotnik is holding the 2, just like in the games. It was also pretty smart to use this poster to mainly advertise the early premiere, since fans who would most likely see the film early would resonate with that poster more

[@sadgirlhours4088]

I love that poster too, its such a good homage to sonic 2 (the game)

[@uwize5897]

the poster is alot like the film imo. it handles the sonic aspect really well but its the most generic thing ive ever seen

[@cloudshines812]

All the Sonic 2 posters were great, but I do thoroughly love the “Welcome to the next level” poster. Not only is Eggman holding the “2” and Sonic and Tails pose in front of it… but it was GENIUS to have Knuckles blend in inside the red “2”

[@anarchohelenism]

The poster to Jurassic Park will always be my favorite movie poster. It's so intriguing. It says so much while leaving even more up to mystery. It's inviting yet threatening at the same time. I don't think that kind of iconography can be topped or replicated. Only downgraded. That's how good it was. Can you tell Jurassic Park is my favorite movie?

[@noahmiguel]

same tho

[@jerbyjerboa]

yeah, i agree. jurassic world dominion had a great opportunity to kinda recreate the original poster with the updated circular logo, as it is the last jurassic park/world movie and would be sorta symbolical to have the style of the original movie. idk just my opinion

[@noahmiguel]

@@jerbyjerboa i agree, it could have been so cool to kind of close the franchise with an homage to the original

[@gojigiante]

@@jerbyjerboa It does tho? It literally is the dark background with amber in casing the JW logo. The one on the thumbnail was fan made and endorsed by Universal, not the actual one for JWD.

[@XeaRae]

Same. It still gives me a thrill looking at it.

[@Teddy-nl8yp]

Such an underrated art form. Get Out, Memento, Killing of a Sacred Deer, and There Will be Blood all have unbelievably great posters

[@thecinematicmind]

The Killing of a Scared Deer posters. The people who did those are legends.

[@Imagools]

Those are the most boring posters I've ever seen in my fucking life

[@Howitgoes799]

@@Imagools Better then most though.

[@alleghanyonce]

@@Imagools cool beans man

[@commanderleo]

@@Imagools really? Get Out and Memento convey a lot about what the movie is about, while having really neat colours

[@jvbon646]

"The Spider-Man Homecoming poster is a loud cluttered mess" is by far an understatement to how bad that thing is when you actually pay atention to the details, with the 3 biggest offenders imo being: -Iron Man appears twice, literaly only there to bait Iron Fanboys into the movie. Even worse, Stark is actually bigger (thus, takes up more poster space) than Peter himself -Zendaya right in the middle, even tho MJ is basically irrelevant for the whole movie, with barely any screentime or important dialogues. She's only there to bait her simps into the movie. It should've been Vulture's dauther instead. -Shoker 1 is there, right next to Vulture and above May. This one is by far the dumbest to me. Remember what I said before about MJ in the movie? Yeah well this guys cranks it up to eleven. Barely any screentime, barely any important dialogue, barely any relevance to the plot. All he did was call himself Shoker (so fans could go apeshit when hearing the reference), and 5 seconds later he is dead. Then Vulture picks his weapon, gives them to his right hand and tells him "you're the Shoker now". Not only is "Shoker 2" the one that we see during most of the movie, but he actually IS relevant during the movie. Ffs Marvel, why would you place Shoker 1 in the damn poster instead of Shoker 2, if he had zero importance or weight on the movie? 🤦‍♂️ And the funniest part to me is that this poster came out in 2016, and it wasn't until a year ago that I found out Shoker 1 was in it. I always believed it was just some random energy explosion or something, like how Stark is covered in flames for some reason. Someone had to point it out for me to see it lmao 🤣

[@Gardetrace]

**Shocker**

[@sowhat7655]

I'd not have been surprised if they also added Donald Grover to the poster to attract Childish Gambino fans, I mean at least he had more screen time than shocker 1 lol

[@TheRealSoftR]

The Homecoming poster at 9:01 was so much better by a landslide. I seriously can’t believe they went with the other one 🤢

[@ЧылгычыОндар-ю1о]

@@TheRealSoftR in Russia this was the official poster

[@justemrys]

Maybe they didn't want to spoil Shocker 1 dying? Fans pour over these posters for hours so even small details like that might give away plot points

[@karimkhakimov7903]

I love the poster for The Martian (2015). It's simple, just a photo of the main character, and the words "bring him home" over the photo explain the whole premise of the movie while also being intriguing and promising a good story.

[@SignalFlowers]

It's just the face of Matt Damon shoved into the camera. Nothing's interesting about it. Imagine the poster having a huge landscape of the Martian red land and you only see one lonely astronaut clenching his fists with absolutely nothing around except red sand and large mountains in the background. Now the line"Bring Him Home" makes more of an impact on the poster.

[@Moodboard39]

@@SignalFlowers idiot, people see and have different perspectives when it comes to art poster

[@Moodboard39]

@@SignalFlowers everyone has their own opinion

[@ABAgamer_]

While on the topic of the floating heads posters, I like how the poster for “Thor: Ragnorak” was handled. Majority of the cast who are in this movie are shown on the poster, but how it was handled is cool to see. The poster places the cast in a symmetrical position and has a different color palette in comparison to not only other MCU movie posters but the previous Thor movie posters too, showing how different this movie tone is in comparison. And if I’m going to be honest, I don’t mind the “floating heads” trend. They just need to be more appealing than distracting. Some of the newer ones just feel like you’re trying to find Waldo in a crowd of people rather than looking at the detailing put into the poster.

[@lifeguardpanda]

Well interestingly, Marvel Studios makes beautiful Movie Posters, they just don't market with them. If you look at their social media right before a movie release you will see Marvel post commissioned posters. They just don't use them. It's really stupid

[@ABAgamer_]

@@lifeguardpanda Especially the one that they used for Dr. Strange 2 early on before replacing it with the "floating heads" one.

[@gdottothegamer1001]

@@ABAgamer_ ok yeah that should be crime, wtf. That one is miles away cooler than the one that we got. I think the reason why movie nowadays doing that because they want to let people know that they got big names in the movie which is really fucking stupid

[@stare4539]

Frr

[@kylerohan3841]

The rise of skywalker did a great job at it too. The lightsabers gave it this slanted disjointed but still semi symmetrical look and it was dope. The pallete was different from the rest of the movie posters as it was a vibrant pale blue theme. It stood out and is put together interestingly. Which tbh is more that I can say for the prequel posters. Sorry prequel fans but the one thing about the sequels is they know how to put striking posters together. The ot also does a good job. The original ANH posters which are fantasy inspired are awesome. Sadly leia is a bit sexualized and is out of character but so is Luke as he isn’t a Jedi at that point. But like leia laying there and luke putting his saber to the sky is iconic and the dramatic fantasy artwork that makes their flowy costumes move around and the dramatic lighting makes it look supa cool

[@VlazeSkylax]

Here is an interesting fact: Disney reduces John Boyega's portrait on the star wars movie (I really don't care to check which one) on the Chinese posters

[@valorenzinth5048]

It’s the force awakens one.

[@swatchbox6789]

Disney also does this for their Marvel movies, they made Black Panther’s mask cover his entire face for the poster in China. Surely, that’s purely because it looks cool and not because of any racial discrimination.. right?

[@moonwhooper]

@Doctah Wahwee i do blame disney. Its pathetic

[@VlazeSkylax]

@@you-nh8xo what are you implying? Plus, look at the replies

[@PUNISHERMHS_2021]

@Doctah Wahwee Disney bows to China, they shouldn't do business with them. So yes, you should blame Disney.

[@AimbyFrame]

9:00 I'm glad you pointed out the official alternative posters for the MCU Spider-Man trilogy. It's pretty weird how these films had such simple creative posters and at the same time the worst "Lazy Film Student" versions where they basically get stills from the film and paper collage the hell out of it until they get something that resembles a poster.

[@cloudshines812]

Remember when the teaser poster for Spider Man Homecoming was ACTUALLY the Amazing Fantasy 15 comic cover? WHY COULDN’T THEY USE THAT FOR THE OFFICIAL MOVIE?’

[@monothephantom]

I had actually only seen some of the alt posters for several of the movies listed (notable some of the spiderman movies) and I was kinda surprised by it lol

[@hihu3749]

When i first saw the spiderman FFH alt poster i thought: I gotta see this movie

[@Matthewtopia]

Ik they're all gross looking

[@alexandershawn440]

​@@cloudshines812 posters don't mean anything trailers are the thing that matter

[@jameskretschmer9134]

The key to making a good movie poster is to try to design the cover for a book that's been made into a movie

[@alejandromarquez8280]

The Martian designers fucked up big time. The book has an awesome cover and the movie poster is dogshit

[@juanchoresultay2704]

exactly, floating heads is just too lazy. Make your movie posters like a book cover

[@ColePrediger]

The original Jurassic park poster caught my interest as a kid because it only revealed that the film had something to do with dinosaurs and was possibly scary. It's mystery and simplicity got me excited.

[@benjaminhuether3846]

speaking as a movie theatre employee, we often end up getting and displaying those alternate posters. It generally comes down to the studio only sending us one, be it the more artistic teaser poster, or the more generic "theatrical" poster later. For example, we only got (and therefore displayed) the early poster for Northman. Same deal with The Last Duel, Eternals, The Batman, Jurassic World 3, even Morbius. Some larger movies don't even bother sending us posters, though, likely for the reasons you mentioned here. For example, we never got either poster for Dune. So, even though "official theatrical" posters are getting more homogenized and generic, that doesn't necessarily apply to the actual experience of seeing them in a movie theatre. (Of course, I can only speak for my theatre, others could be completely different).

[@SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

I do agree there is much greater area for intrigue and wonder when it comes to movie posters. Indiana Jones posters are the peak in my opinion, they hint the theme of the film, show the main cast, and looks artistically creative. They stay in your mind when you see them, and I feel that more recent ones don't. Recent ones just feel simple. A good example of this was "The Martian" movie, taking place on mars with an ambiguous name of just "The Martian". Without context this title could hint to a multitude of things especially in Sci-Fi, they had a lot of room to be creative with the poster, but instead just put an orange filter over Matt Damon's face with the words Bring Him Home or something like that.

[@deadchannel3274]

@@night6724 the suicide squad is not garbage.

[@jasonbattle6365]

@@night6724 I'm pretty sure he means that SM3's posters gave a hint to an overall theme of the movie. Going from left to right, the first two posters shown in the video showed two different looks for Spider-Man, the regular and the symbiote. But the poster depicts them as reflections of one another. I'm pretty sure the reflections mean that they're both reflections of Spider-Man, and by extension, reflections of Peter Parker. The third poster...I'm not sure. To me it gives off the overall theme of sorrow, darkness, and mystery, which could be referencing how the black suit is leading Peter down a darker path, and mystery on what the suit exactly is and what (and how) it's doing this to him. And as for "the other bad examples", as you put it, I'm somewhat sure he means that those don't give a clear hint of what the move is about or what an overall theme is. They're just showing who and what is in the movie with other effects on it. There are definitely examples of this done right (I'm pretty sure some commenter in this video said something about Thor: Ragnarok doing it right), but generally it's all the same stuff. Edit: and yes this is just my viewpoint. This is just how I see things, and you don't have to.

[@alexandershawn440]

trailers are more important than posters

[@Coconut_Prrson]

I remember Eternals had like 500 posters. There were a lot of good ones but something amazing to me was a poster that looked like stained glass, showing a magnificent picture of a celestial standing prideful with a lot of beautiful colors. It looked amazing and Eternals had a lot of posters as beautiful as that. But for the promotional material they will usually use the same, boring, lifeless poster of all the main characters looking at the beach doing nothing. It had no meaning, no impact, it didn't catch the eye, it was just uncreative and boring. Yet they decided to MAINLY use that poster

[@alexandershawn440]

posters don't mean anything trailers are what matters

[@Coconut_Prrson]

@@alexandershawn440 posters are art. If you rly think posters are just for propaganda you miss the entire point of the video

[@alexandershawn440]

@@Coconut_Prrson sure posters look good but in comparison to a trailer a poster is only there for theaters to hang up

[@alexandershawn440]

@@Coconut_Prrson we live in the era of the internet trailers market a movie more than a poster ever could

[@Coconut_Prrson]

@@alexandershawn440 again. Posters are meant to be art, the same way that movies are meant to be art. Idfc about the marketing. If you really can't grasp such simple concept then you just have a very square, uninspired mind

[@CesarGameBoy.]

For me, the Godzilla and DOOM franchise’s posters will never fail to amaze me every time. Because 9 times out of 10, they’re a beautiful work of art that perfectly encapsulate what you’re in for.

[@whytwokay]

I think Donnie Darko is an example of a "floating head" poster done right. It puts all of the actor's heads into Frank's mask instead of putting them around it, keeping the mask as the main visual and keeping you focused on it. It fits the movies tone, with the poster and film both being dark and ominous.

[@thatfilmbuff8135]

I’ve always loved simpler posters. The original holding hands poster for Logan, Rorschach walking down the street for Watchmen, the first posters for all the main Avengers movies…

[@wiimotesNremmy]

Really loved the sets of posters for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). They released a specific poster for all 4 main Kailua in that film with each poster being a unique color specific to that monster. It was mostly just the monster, it’s name and a few other small details but the simplicity and the one main color tone make em look absolutely stunning on their own but even better as a set, as each stands out.

[@jimboringo9958]

I have all 4 of those posters on my wall and they’re absolutely amazing looking, and it’s a great film as well

[@bathsaltvendor]

I was just about to comment this! The individual posters really give a sense of scale to each of the kaiju and highlight their defining traits + the colors matching each of them is just *chefs kiss. I also like the main movie poster because it shows what we actually came for, to see the big G in all his glory

[@SrMaximus]

Definitely those posters are awesome! Mosterverse rocks

[@alejandromarquez8280]

Godzilla Vs Kong poster is good too imo. The colors are great and it lets the viewer know than in the movie it is Godzilla hunting down Kong and Kong being absolutely ready to put up a fight

[@Godzilla-jr5gi]

I have something that I've been thinking about. Why haven't the monsterverse movies been used as an example of bad modern Hollywood movies?

[@kryptgmd]

Ironically, Casablanca actually didn’t preform too well when it was released, only becoming known as a classic many years later

[@cordyceps182]

I really loved the poster for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It hides parts of Ghidorah in the clouds while making it look like he's wrapping around Godzilla, giving the illusion that the already gigantic kaiju is far larger than it actually is. It does a great job at making Godzilla look like the underdog, not to mention how beautiful it is as well.

[@mrspiffy8587]

The odd thing is, for most of the posters in which he showed a stylistic one and a generic one, like Spider-man and The Batman, I had never even seen the generic one. I was shocked and disgusted when I saw the generic poster for the Batman since I had only seen the beautiful, red sillhouette poster

[@Lonewolf360gaming]

I miss the Diversity when it came to what posters used to be,like the simplicity of some posters or over dramatization of them makes them more interesting

[@ToomanyFrancis]

Chani was on the poster for Dune because she is one of the most important characters of the first 3 books. For anybody that hasn't read the books it doesn't make sense for such a minor character to be on the poster, for the people have read the books it wouldn't make sense for the Chani to be left out of the floating head poster.

[@princeapoopoo5787]

While I 100% agree with you there on her importance, I don't really think that was the intent of the poster. If they really wanted to make it "for the fans" I feel like more artistic integrity would have put into it. Still think the dude in the video could have made this point a little better tho.

[@powderkegs983]

I did not like Dune's poster. Even though some of the characters are important as per the story, it is not good to just stick their head on the poster. They just dumped all those floating heads and having this "we have all these famous/popular actors so come watch the movie" vibe. I think it is a wasted potential because below the floating heads there is a shot of a cloaked man in the middle of the desert. IMO this should have been the entire poster as it is intriguing and artistic.

[@mich722]

@@powderkegs983 Agreed.

[@oscarstainton]

I actually agree with the overall argument for the decline of film posters, but I would like to point out that the Jurassic World 2 poster used in the thumbnail was created by a fan with photoshop using his own resources, and the studio took notice and basically made it official because a lot of fans responded positively to them. This is a lieu of the fact that the official posters put out by Universal ranged from bland to terrible. It wasn’t the only one he made, and there were several more appropriate ones for not just Jurassic World but the previous three films. Ultimately, the one the studio went with ended up the most tone-deaf one. Ultimately, I feel this was important to assert for everyone watching and reading through comments,and to provide context, since you’re likely to get a lot of views for the thumbnail alone.

[@games_on_phone89]

seems based enough

[@stare4539]

Fr

[@Mowingthefrontlawn]

Thanks. Neemz is a great poster artist who does a variety of styles. The dino-collage is just the one Universal chose.

[@joshlagreca]

Fallen Kingdom was probably one of my favourite JP films yet somehow I had never seen that poster until seeing the thumbnail of this video. I thought the main poster was the one with them hiding from the dinosaur behind the gyrosphere with the volcano in the background

[@figmentofyourimagination5514]

Just because it's fan made, doesn't mean it's not allowed to be criticized. It's heavily bland and suffers from the issues that the youtuber himself pointed out. It's honestly just a shitty poster from a creativity point.

[@LoCoNights]

IMAX posters are actually fantastic. I always noticed that when I go to the movies because there is a giant IMAX poster at the front. Anytime a movie has IMAX version is a different poster than the original. I am reminded of the Star Trek into darkness IMAX poster being amazing

[@gwarchive]

Agree!! They are really minimalist which in a way gives people an impression as to how gorgeous it will be in the giant screen.

[@christinadavies1925]

my favorite recent movie poster is one of the alternates for the Green Knight-where gawain is facing away from the camera, you see the back of the gold/yellow crown in this high contrast against the red. I'm honestly not that interested in fantasy or pieces set in arthurian times, but the graphical treatment of that specific poster was enough for me to actually go watch the movie in a theater, since it did such a good job setting a stylistic precedent for the film.

[@Lanevix]

I agree that the quality of film posters have declined but actually that Jurassic world fallen Kingdom poster that you talked about and in the thumbnail of the video was actually fan made, it was just doing well in the fandom and universal used it with the guys permission as good will towards the community

[@Ruzzky_Bly4t]

It's still a pretty uninspired poster, even though it's good that a company like Universal listens to its community.

[@mrknarf4438]

If anything it looks like a jab at the floating head format, with dinosaurs instead of actors. Not as uninspired as it seems at first

[@mich722]

@@mrknarf4438 Yes, the real 'stars' of the movie.

[@EzekielMitchell98]

can i say something the alt poster are so much better

[@davidci]

It's so sad seeing that Everything Everywhere All At Once, despite it's extremely gorgeous movie poster drawn and painted by James Jean (who also made the gorgeous movie poster for mother!), isn't getting as much attention as most blockbuster movies with generic blue-and-orange floating heads poster. Also, love the usage of the Better Call Saul OST at 5:30

[@alexandershawn440]

trailers are more important than posters

[@owens.studios]

The super simplistic posters always get me the most hyped. Some examples, the poster for The Empire Strikes Back where it's just Vader's helmet blending in with the space background. It's so dark and ominous, I love it. The first poster for The Incredibles 2, just seeing the logo alone was enough to get me excited. Spider-Man 3, both the window shot showing off both suits and the one of him wearing the Symbiote suit in the rain. Both of them are so nice to look at, and just grap your attention wanting to know the story behind them. The classic Jurassic Park poster. The solid black and the red with the T-Rex skeleton gives off a haunting, unsettling feeling, and I love it. And more recently, the red poster for The Batman. The red and rain blend together nicely, and Batman's silhouette makes it all come together perfectly. What sucks about The Batman poster is it was immediately replaced with the generic floating heads poster with this weird mix of orange, and it just doesn't look right. The worst part is, is it instantly became the main poster for marketing, even though there's nothing really exciting about it (personally) 'cause it just shows you all the characters in it. The red rain poster wasn't nearly as busy and sold me better on the film since there was a lot left to the imagination, and was a lot easier on the eyes. I have a posters of Raiders of the Lost Ark (images.app.goo.gl/GFZTPS6LBfaUhX5CA) and The Empire Strikes Back (images.app.goo.gl/ddZaemUxNJmRoai57) hung up in my room. They're a lot nicer looking than something like Avengers: Endgame, or Spider-Man: Homecoming 'cause they're nowhere near as cluttered. Side note: I loved the inclusion of The Suicide Squad here. It's one of my favorite movies. I think its posters looked great.

[@abdullahx4908]

Moon knight poster was awesome

[@PolygonDonut]

One of my favorite posters is for Malignant. Its a simple, unsettling and symbolic representation of the movie

[@redymedy]

it is, love how the I is made to look like a knife going down to the eye and is expanded further in other posters where it IS a knife.

[@elampersick]

ANXIETY: the poster

[@lincolnbobby5904]

Yessss!!!

[@cryofreezie3943]

I was sold on The Batman by it’s red and black poster on busses. It was so eye catching and iconic that I researched the film more and went to see it

[@3nnik]

There used to be a time where you could differenciate movies just by looking at their posters, but now it's incredible hard to even tell which movie is which when all the posters are just floating heads with the same color concept, and wild ass composition.

[@FTChomp9980]

There's a reason why I like Classic Movie posters it shows the Movie itself with good art with passion put into it. The Poster itself tells the story like for example The Neverending Story one of my favorite 80s movies it showed Atrayu riding on Falcor the Luck Dragon.

[@jekkt]

i agree. a good poster captures the soul of the movie. thats why i like some of the examples shown at around 6:38 until 7:01 - repetitive and uncreative? sure, but so are the movies and it fits the style. its kinda honest in a way. you know what you're getting.

[@Virgil077]

I always gravitated towards the teaser posters of movies, you know the ones that you might see at the theater or online before there's a even a trailer. They didnt reveal too much and sometimes didnt even have the title, but they showed enough. The posters for Deathly Hallows showing Hogwarts on fire always stands out to me

[@LexVanguard2004]

Teaser posters just look cooler in general. One that always comes to mind is The Amazing Spider-Man where he's clinging to the wall and his shadow forms the spider logo. It's cryptic and cool.

[@vadernation1233]

@@LexVanguard2004 reminds me of the phantom menace teaser poster which is just anakin as a child but his shadow forms the silhouette of Darth Vader. I don’t really care too much for the phantom menace but that poser is literally my favorite movie poster of all time.

[@LexVanguard2004]

@@vadernation1233 Ikr that one's way better than the theatrical poster

[@thomsboys77]

The teaser poster for Skyfall, which was a shot of Bond walking in a tunnel that resembled the gun barrel, I had hung on my wall for years

[@PEWEHHS]

My absolute favorite movie poster is the one for the original Halloween. Somehow captures the atmosphere of the movie in a really simple design and is just genuinely very compelling to look at

[@RUYeti-or-Not]

I’ve been working at a movie theater for over a year now and my absolute favorite part is that I get to take all of the posters for free so I have a massive collection. It’s my pride and joy 😁

[@VamshiOhgs]

I've always wanted to talk about this topic, as in the past there was more character and effort being put into those posters Which made the end product look way better and doing so made them so iconic Something that is replaced to these Netflix sort of poster where it's just the face of a famous actor and their logo, it's a lost art of some sort

[@jekkt]

facts

[@alexandershawn440]

trailers are more important than posters

[@lazy6914]

This was a really interesting video to watch! I’m a graphic designer myself and watching you point out almost all of the same floating head concept posters makes me feel surprised on how often and uncreative some of these graphic designers are! I truly hope this trend dies out sooner than we think

[@Whodnl]

Man I can’t lie a Doktor Skipper video on a Sunday feels like a warm hug from a good friend. Always making timeless content

[@magnuskallas]

A small side note. Some of the famous classic posters (especially for horror genre) were often a creative afterthought since IP wasn't yet properly established. Depicting something the Producer or Director fancied. To name a few: Tremors (the creature in the ground is different from the film with teeth and more resembling Jaws in the ground)... Alien (the egg is different from the film and in fact one promo trailer used an egg on a brownie cake for the relatable organic properties)... The Thing poster takes different approach to illustrate a morphing humanoid, more resembling an astronaut... Evil Dead 2 uses a fairly normal skull with Ash's eyes instead of a Deadite...

[@oca6256]

A minute and a half in, and the humor n’ editing already sold me. As someone who’s felt the same way about movie posters for a long time and as an artist who loved to draw his own, this really brought a lot of points and issues to light. Great video dude!

[@lowboye]

Hey Skippy, I know I’m late to the party on this one but I have an interesting anecdote regarding this topic: I actually used to work at a movie theater in high school and generally we would be sent multiple sets of posters. Some of them were the “floating head” posters but there were almost always variant posters we were sent; the more artistic/intriguing ones, As a general rule we would put the more straight forward/actor centric posters on the outside of the building - and the more interesting ones on the inside of the building. There are probably a million reasons why but I just thought it was interesting. I’m not sure if that’s standard across most movie theater chains tho

[@davidfeltheim2501]

Most movies now have a lot of posters, alternates, specific promotion types, and fan-made and that's where modern movies shine, is in the fandom bringing a film out of the corporate sphere to make it their own through their art.

[@predacontherising3715]

The across the spider verse poster goes up there with the "had creative poster but swap with floating heads" one. Seriously the poster of miles upside down and all the spiderman are there goes HARD. Even the one with miles and Gwen and you can see Miguel through miles mask. But nah they went the generic "all main cast standing looking mean and serious" poster. Like wtf it can't be a coincidence this is mainly happening with the spiderman movies.

[@cdvinche]

My favorite movie poster is either Jaws or the original Star Wars poster (with Luke holding the lightsaber up and Vader's head as the background) Honorable mentions -Jurassic Park -Deadpool 2 (raining bullets) -1917 -Godfather -Alien -Back to the future -Terminator -Scar Face -Pulp Fiction -Die Hard -Ferris Bueller day off -Silence of the lambs -E.T -Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Original) -The Thing -2001 -Ghostbusters -Batman Dark Knight -Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse -Home Alone 2 -Raiders of the lost Arc -Joker -Spider-Man 2 -Kill Bill -Zombie Land -How To Train Your Dragon -Lion King and so many more but that's just some of my favorites

[@ParkRanger2000]

Not to act like a douchebag, but the previous Jurassic World posters were the same as the Jurassic Park Poster. Their Posters were sleek and simple, just showing the logo and slogan or just a Mosquito on a Dinosaur. (By the way, that was also a Fan-Made poster that someone created. Even though Universal did make it official, just pointing out the Fact that a Fan created the poster. :3)

[@l_a_n_k_y]

I loved the video dude, just one problem, the fallen kingdom poster was made by a friend of mine, the movie poster guy, you can find him on Instagram, he makes lots of posters if you couldn’t tell, he doesn’t really do much floating head stuff but for that one he just decided to, the poster blew up so much that he was contacted by the team I believe he said about the poster and so a lot of people get confused between what’s real and fan made, but yeah he made the poster, still loved the video dude keep it up!

[@mallk238]

I think an added bonus to the suicide squad poster is that all the actors make a unique shape because they match the star shape in the background. It just fits together nicely in my brain. meanwhile it feels like all of the more generic looking ones try to either make triangle or circle that is still kind of a triangle, where all of the heads shrink as you get closer to the bottom points based off of how "important" they are to the plot

[@amor3muerte]

One of my favorite movie posters has to be from Blazing Saddles. It's drawn and looks great, and you can see it's setting is the old west, but you can also see more modern things like sunglasses on the main character and a microphone, pointing out that it has some futuristic qualities. You can even see on the coin it says "Hi. I'm Mel. Trust me" instead of the usual "In God We Trust" setting up the comedy factor of the movie

[@pivotguydc1149]

Counterpoint: the "studio mandated floating head" posters usually aren't released until right before release, while oftentimes the more creative ones are shown prior for a longer period of time. That prior period is when hype is drummed up and people decide to go see it, not after. Take Spider-Man Homecoming: the "laying down yellow jacket" poster is what we all saw in the weeks leading up to theater release and that's what sold the tickets. The floating head one wasn't seen until the DVD release.

[@Arthromod]

I feel so bad for Neemz creating that one-off Fallen Kingdom poster and how much it gets dragged through the mud.

[@elesfinter9753]

Posters are still very important to this day, with online services the poster thumbnail is the first thing you see for a show/movie. And if you pay attention they tend to use the better, more simplistic design (maybe because small resolution, crowded posters with a ton of actors wouldn't work)

[@jekkt]

i think the problem is that the poster does not capture the spirit of the movie anymore. movies are like 75% special fx nowadays so that is what is reflected in those new posters. hella glowy lights, dissolving surroundings etc., thats what gives it this distinct "soulless" style, while trying to achieve a "blockbuster" feeling.

[@instxnt]

The 40th Anniversary poster for the Empire Strikes back is criminally underrated and probably the best movie post I've ever seen. That and the poster for Moonlight are my two favorites! 💜

[@quirkygirlboss]

To me, one of the recent posters that I've really liked is for The Invisible Man. It really unsettles me, especially after watching the movie. I tried to look really close to the poster to see if there was something in the dark part of the poster where she's looking. It's nicely done but my favorite will always be The Exorcist. I'm a big horror fan and the poster for The Exorcist is so iconic, so well done. A close second would be the original Evil Dead poster and third Jurassic Park. I hope companies will start putting the more creative posters for advertisement.

[@AmyoftheAuraforce]

This feels very cathartic Ive been trying to tell people about how so many modern posters look like shit for years. I will never forgive the other Blade Runner 2049 poster where they turned off the cool color contrast to make it a regular floating heads poster, that was one of the main dvd covers for it

[@Tadicuslegion78]

Attack of the 50 foot woman, one of the greatest poster works of art to a god awful boring movie that only has a giant woman rampaging in the last 5 minutes with terrible effects even by B movie standards. And yet parodied and referenced so many times. If I had access to making a good budget and a good film crew and cast, I'd make a version of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman to do that poster justice.

[@llla_german_ewoklll6413]

My favorite movie poster is a tie between Baby Driver and 1917. Baby driver is kinda a floating head poster, but it shows the colorful and playful nature of the film along with who has important roles in it. 1917 shows you that you that the movie is about you following two soldiers into the unknown, and a lot of the frame isn't known because everything outside of the title is blacked out. It really paints a good picture of what the movie represents.

[@thecowboybebop2071]

Intrigue is an important factor of a movie poster in my opinion. The elements rather than the people on it can make you wonder about the film. My favorite film, Akira, has two insanely good movie posters. One is of the main character walking up to his bike in a white surrounding, and the other is of him standing over a dark cityscape with a sci-fi gun. Simple yet incredibly effective.

[@newbie4789]

Jurassic park, Jaws, Pulp fiction, Silence of the lamb are all the posters that are just impossible to forget

[@veggsbacon1891]

My dad showed me a picture a movie "poster" of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It looks OBVIOUSLY photoshoped by sn amateur: the photo where Sonic & Knuckles are about to fight, Knuckles is crudely replaced by Shadow, the Robotnik portrait is the same as 2nd movie, blah blah ya get it. I told him, "that's NOT a real movie poster."

[@mallk238]

Fun fact about how to train your dragon 2, when it was first being made someone leaked photos of the promotional material. This spoiled the reveal that all of the characters were going to look older. But it also showed a movie poster that had a lot of floating heads and stuff...and also stoic was positioned in in a way that only characters in movies who are going to die generally get positioned. The official movie posters changed this, but that was how it was spoiled for me that stoic was going to die in httyd 2. Generic movie posters have the potential to not only be boring...they also can just flat out spoil your movie i guess

[@shyguy85]

Wait there's an area on those posters for characters that get killed off? Which place

[@mallk238]

@@shyguy85 No, there's no "set place" where characters go on posters if they die in the movie. In one of the star trek movies, Spok dies. His face on the poster is semi transparent and large, hanging out in the background, centered on the frame. In one of the leaked posters for httyd 2, Stoic was center frame, large, and semi transparent. The similarities were enough to make people speculate that he was going to die. So generally if a character was a large "phantom face" on the movie poster its a safe bet that they aren't gonna make it to the end credits.

[@Linnnaeus]

I would like to point out the fact that the poster for Fallen kingdom that you showed, while distributed by Universal, was made by a fan, and also that the poster wasn't really used by marketing. Every poster I saw of it in public was the simple black with logo or the T. rex chomping on the helicopter ladder

[@DrGodzilla1954]

I saw a few Godzilla references here, so I am surprised you didn’t mention how awesome the Godzilla 2014 and 2019 posters were.

[@scottjefferson4048]

my favorite poster of all time is District 9's poster, i remember seeing it as a kid and i couldnt watch cause i though it was a scary movie and my parents wouldnt have let me see it, but i always remembered that poster years after and decided to search the movie and watch it.

[@iamafish7]

I think the official poster for Sonic 2 should've been the recreation of the Sonic 2 US game cover they did like a few months before the film came out.

[@darkonyx6995]

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom may have indeed an alful poster, but Jurassic World Dominion's poster is absolutely gorgeous, perhaps the second best poster, only behind the original Jurassic Park's poster.

[@waspanimations7037]

That poster for fallen kingdom isn't even official though, the actual official poster is the simplistic logo.

[@epicdragonz5327]

Stranger Things (although being a TV show) is a good example of the face poster done right in my opinion. They have been using it since season one, and its always been stylized in the same way, usually displaying Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in the centre with all of the supporting characters and whatever monster is central in the season around her. I love the colours and the art style of it, and its one of the only face posters that looks attractive to me and definitely works for the show. Also one of the only good Netflix posters, as they tend to do poorly with them (mainly for their movies).

[@Joemama-qd7eu]

I remember walking through a cinema and being absolutely stunned by the Slenderman movie poster that was hanging there

[@callmeloop9299]

My favorite poster is probably Do the Right thing because of how pleasing and simple it is. All the colors blend together, and damn is the blue beautiful

[@emmatalbot3417]

My all time favorite movie poster is for the 1927 film "Metropolis", and it works so well because it carries that intrigue that makes you want to know more. It also uses what was popular at the time well (in this case, art deco).

[@aniflowers1998]

Okay, I kind of like the Dominion poster though? The contrast between the stark black background and the glowing yellow is pretty, and reminds me of the design of the original movie poster which also had a simple black background to make the symbol pop. Keeping the entire color palete black and gold is an interesting choice that keeps the poster from looking overcrowded, even though there is a lot going on in a pretty smal space. The four actors on top look nice enough, though I would probably have gone with different posing and arranged them acordingly. The only thing thar bugs me, are the three actors on the bottom, since they intercept the franchises iconic symbol, which is the center piece of this poster. I would have just not included them to show the logo in full.

[@Moodboard39]

Ur opinion don't matter. Art poster is subjective

[@aniflowers1998]

@@Moodboard39 which is why I gave an analisys from my viee point. If anything, your comment matters less, since you didn't contribute anything to the conversation and just left a rudely worded remark. By the logic of "art is subjective, therefor your opinion doesn't matter" you are just implying that no media/art analisys should be held or voiced since every opinion is by default uninportant, so why voice it at all.

[@thecalmbro]

Would love to see more movie related posts like this talking a little bit about the industry and history of film and tv

[@Pushing_Daisies]

Personally, my favorite movie poster is the one for Beetlejuice. I like looking at all the little details like the house having a face or the football team on the roof. You can spend a long time just pointing out the little details on it. I love it so much I’ve actually got it hung up in my study

[@fazfaraday]

i like how the suicide squad poster looks. It's perfectly balanced and the characters "float" or stacked on top of each other without the heavy gradient opacity.

[@ElPsyKongroo]

I always like how gta does posters. A slice of the life of each character in each of the pictures or the entire poster is a blown up version of one of the smaller ones on the cover.

[@yoshidaaimi34]

1:45 love the Utopia ost sneaked in there btw, top tier

[@archaaayyyy4282]

1:53 Utopia’s soundtrack is so good

[@Kiwi-fl8te]

The floating dinosaur heads as if their a cast of lovable characters and well-known actors is so funny to me like "omg, RAPTOR is in this movie?????!!!!!!!!!!!"

[@Patrick-pk5hk]

the shaun of the dead poster with him and a bunch of zombies pressed up against a window is one of my personal favourites.

[@lost-Eclipse]

i personally like dominions poster because while the floating heads are still there they don't look like there taking as much space as they usually do. it feels like how the movie will be a mixing of two eras cause it has the simplicity of 80s and 90s era poster with the whole feel of a new poster. am i looking too far into this? yes but hey at least its better than fallen kingdoms

[@nicolas2707_]

Great video. I'm so happy that letterboxd tends to use the more creative posters over the generic and artless floating heads.

[@timmm1668]

“Actors are not the only victims to the floating head model, the transformer movie have the transformer’s head on the poster because Megan Fox wasn’t big enough yet”. I thought you meant that literally lol

[@TheSuperJepphyKiller]

That Jurassic World Poster looks freaking hilarious with those Dinosaur heads lmaooo

[@leahheidi7934]

One thing that I wonder about this concept is how/if streaming services will begin altering the importance of movie posters. The formatting of streaming services forces the audience to look at a type of poster, and depending on the movie or series, there are instances where producers have tried to mix the "show the most famous actor" and "make it visually interesting" ideas. I'd like to see what direction this goes in, especially since there are more and more straight-to-streaming movies and shows being put out.

[@bee_whisper]

The ones I find saddening are when fan made posters for a film stand out so much that the company is kicking themselves not using it . Like captain America first avenger a fan made one with the sheild next to a rifles and helmet in black and white looked so poignant

[@firstnamelastname956]

Yeah but Captain America is one of the least interesting characters in Marvel

[@bee_whisper]

I dunno tbh I feel like on surface level he is but like he is the ideals of the Aryan man physically but stands for the exact opposite and in odd bits of dialogue he mentions being part Irish and his parents going to church etc

[@toasterowens8916]

name name clearly dont read comics

[@hulkkkhogan]

good, they're a waste of time.

[@carlcarlington7317]

The best movie posters/ trailers are the ones that make you wonder “what’s this about?” I remember the advertisement campaign for district 9 in my local movie theaters with “humans only” posters posted on bathroom walls and it got my super interested in seeing the movie. Recently it feels like the advertisement campaigns for movies are dedicated to tell you EVERYTHING about the movie and that sucks imo I’m not going to see the new doctor strange movie because 1: the mcu should’ve ended with endgame. It was the perfect ending to the grander story, I refuse to watch any post endgame mcu movies on principle. And 2: I already pretty much know how the films going to play out from the first trailer and just how formulaic mcu films are.

[@nelisezpasce]

That sounds so cool, now the marketing goes to astroturfing. You can tell when the hype isn't organic.

[@firstnamelastname956]

That’s on you then, man. Lol

[@roxanne_]

You made a good call lmao I’m debating on continuing to even go see the next Marvel movie or show just because the cameos are over saturated and done poorly and the movies don’t have any uniqueness it’s formulaic and I don’t care about the characters or stories. I’ll probably just continue reading the comics instead anyways. But I have hope that Thor 4 can make me continue going to theaters.

[@carterskindle7086]

11:37 that made me laugh much harder than it should have

[@jackmanning1117]

My favorite is the original Empire Strikes Back poster. The feeling of wonder and adventure it evokes is powerful and I just love looking at it

[@justfrankjustdank2538]

i love eternal sunshine of the spotless minds poster, its so simple, so easy to read, but when examined closer you can see its not as stable as it seems

[@RedCaio]

you're too harsh on the floating heads thing, I think a bigger problem is that the posters are too busy, too stuffed with details. Endgame and Black Panther were good but could've been great had they omitted at least 5 characters.

[@zarinaa1135]

I love How To Train Your Dragon and the third movie has an awful poster. It puts the Light Fury front and center with Toothless and Hiccup is doing the DreamWorks face. There is a fantastic poster that is much better, its Hiccup flying on Toothless, but he is middle aged and bearded, his hand is reaching into the water, pushing up a stream of spray, and his reflection, reaching out to take his hand, is his reflection from the first film. Its minimalist and amazing. The second movie had a good poster, the whole cast in their aged up looks, on a slanted angle, with the tagline 'training is over'. Not minimal, but interesting. No DreamWorks face so I'm happy. The first movie has a bad poster with DreamWorks Face, but the better well known poster is the better one, a minimal, stylized rendition of the Forbidden Friendship scene. The best scene in history.

[@rebeccahill6187]

I actually prefer the "floating head" poster for Last Night in Soho. It communicates the movie's dark and woozy tone so much better and I really like its use of verticality to suggest a descent into London's seedy underworld. The painted one feels too pleasant and almost romantic, and that's definitely not a vibe that carries through into the actual film. I haven't actually seen the movie yet (apparently it's kinda bad lmao), but the poster for 'Men' with the uncanny portrait of Rory Kinnear has gotta be my favourite poster from the past few years. It's SO striking, deeply unsettling but difficult to even explain why, and instantly raises questions that'd only really be satisfyingly answered by paying for a ticket. The two posters for 'Nope' (so far) also have that similar air of "what the fuck is this movie even about" and regardless of how the film turns out to be, I already think it's great that we still get promo campaigns that work through mystery rather than spectacle.

[@Real_MisterSir]

I could write an entire thesis on the original Jurassic Park movie poster. It is almost excessively simplistic for a typical poster standard, but there is so much context going into why that is so perfect. Imagine you're in 1993, and have seen the biggest and most ambitions monster and dinosaur related movies ever up until now. Safe to say, the bar isn't that high yet (similar to space action related productions pre Star Wars). Now, here is the news of a new movie, a dinosaur related movie supposedly, by Steven Spielberg no less. You know nothing of its content, you have no expectations, nothing to judge it by. Then you see the poster. "Jurassic Park" in big bold letters, and an ominous blacked out skeleton surrounding it. What does this mean? It's about a park, with a Jurassic theme. Skeleton, hmm what could you expect? Nothing explicit is given away, things are only hinted at. And because it's 1993 and every comparable movie thus far has been less than stellar, nobody knows what to expect. The full black casing around the JP logo itself reinforces this even further, letting people's imagination run wild. NOTHING is given, nothing is spoiled. The only theme conveyed, is "be intrigued, be curious. Desire to know more". And just like the actual characters in the movie who have no idea what they're actually getting themselves into by flying out to this theme park - neither do the movie goers. The movie goer is allowed to put themselves perfectly in the shoes of the main cast, and almost watch along together and feel as if they themselves are currently present in that movie universe. And then the production hits them, the vision and the ambition of Spielberg coming to life. "No expenses spared", truly. Animatronics on a level so incredible that the visuals still hold up decades later - and safe to say they blow EVERYTHING that came before out of the waters. This is the context of movie goers who went to see JP in 1993 for the very first time - and the movie poster with just the logo and the black background was an absolute masterpiece of marketing and suspense. So much so that I doubt we will ever see a better matched movie and poster again, as this level of wonder and awe will be near impossible to reproduce today. I hope I am wrong about never seeing this level again, but until I am proven wrong, JP and its original posters to me are the highest masterclass example of how to work with suspense and leading through curiosity rather than expectation.

[@descendingforth]

My favorite movie poster has to be The Goonies. The poster captures all the adventures of the movie perfectly.