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First film poster
The first film poster was created by Jules Cheret for the show Projections Artistiques. He was a popular French painter and lithographer. Cheret later went on to make many other posters for films. -
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History of Film Posters
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The 28" x 42" frame
Georges Melies, a French magician that made many short science and fantasy movies, used posters to promote his work. These posters were usually 28”x42” and were some of the most recognizable at the time. Melies posters inspired many other producers who made their own. -
America's introduction to film posters
American director Edwin S. Porter released The Great Train Robbery. The movie ended up becoming extremely popular, and it's poster became well known. -
Poster Size Adaption
Thomas Edison set the standard size for movie posters when making his own films. This size was 27”x41”. Commonly used outside cinemas to show what films are playing. -
Small poster cards
As theaters and cinemas became more popular, nickelodeons faded from prominence. Instead of full sized posters for them, small flashcard-like cards were used to promote the remaining ones. They were 11”x14” and usually showed scenes from the film. -
Introduction to Billboards
These were massive posters set up around buildings. With the rise of cars and other vehicles, the idea was to advertise the film to drivers of people on the street as they could be seen from a distance. -
Switching things up
Up until the 1930s, most posters looked the same in terms of layout (font, placements, etc.). As movies began to get more popular, graphic designers were allowed to experiment with designs. The result was more diverse and interesting posters. -
Higher quality posters
Posters began using tinted photographs of the movie stars (instead of relying on the artistic design) and were made so that people in cars could see them clearly from far away. -
Introduction to special effects
The 80s saw the development of new special effects, which had an impact on what kinds of images were selected for advertisement purposes. This is when posters began to look more futuristic and even more realistic. -
Return of The Jedi
Return of The Jdi was the only film in that time to keep the original painted design of film posters. -
Modern Movie Posters
Computerized effects helped posters to include more fantasy, action, and realistic creatures and locations. -
Simple and minimalist design
Posters nowadays usually remove all extra clutter on posters and feature one character on the poster to put all the focus on them.