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50 Beautiful Movie Posters
Movie posters are art and, unfortunately, the forgotten one. In the early years of cinema history, they were used just like advertising material. Displayed in theatres only, movie posters had the same function as a menu in a restaurant: what feast can I enjoy this evening? Nowadays, movie posters play a big role in cinema memorabilia collection. They have lost the “informative” tone to wear a more artistic and decorative dress. We want to change it with this post.
Made in many different sizes and versions, and released in different moments all along a movie’s life, posters immortalize in one static image the feeling and the atmosphere of a motion picture. Some posters can be dark or try to frighten the audience, others bedazzling with bright colors; some can be someway informative, while others can be fully teasing and may provide you only the date when movie will be released, even if you may not know what the movie is about.
In this post we present you a showcase of 50 beautiful movie posters. We went through different decades of movie history and different genre, different graphical approach, colors and style. Movies the posters are about may be famous or not, this is not the point.
Movie posters put together the love for for two different visual arts: cinema and graphics. Enjoy!
You may also want to take a look at the related posts:
50 Beautiful Movie Posters
The Spirit (Upcoming, December 2008)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) (1964)
Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
Italian version.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Last Click
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956)
Please note the advice’s style (highlighted with the red circle) for the audience: an innocent suggestion or just marketing?.
Resources
- Film Posters History On Wikipedia
- Movie Genre Classification on Wikipedia
- impawards.com
Internet Movie Poster Awards, with all the lates movie poster news and updates. - imdb.com
International Movie Data Base (IMDB), probably the most authoritative and well known movie website. - A Gray Space Poster Gallery
Some artistic Polish movie poster - Cinemasterpieces.com
A good place where to buy movie memorabilia: old and original movie posters. - movieposteraddicted.com
Another good site about movie and movie posters. - Posterwire.com
A movie poster weblog. - Movieposter.com
A huge archive of movie poster. - Science-Fiction Movie Posters Archive
- 50 Incredible Film Posters From Poland
- Weird Posters: Wrong Side Of The Art
- PosterWhore
Social bookmarking for movie posters. - Internet Movie Posters Awards
- Kerry Ropper’s Selection
- Michael Heilemann’s Movie Posters Collection
- Movie Poster Blog
- Vintage Horror & Sci-Fi Posters through the 1940s
- Posters Flickr Pool
- Hand-Drawn Movie Posters
- A Grayspace Poster Gallery
- 31 Great Movie Posters
Related posts
You may also want to take a look at the related posts:
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Alessandro Cattaneo is a communication specialist with great passion for web and design.
- 119 Comments
- 1
- 2October 12th, 2008 2:32 pm
Lot of retro style posters. Nice collection.
- 3October 12th, 2008 2:34 pm
Amazing collection of posters! I was shocked, when i saw links to movies nearby every poster! It was ver hard work, i respect to Alessandro Cattaneo!
P.S. Sorry for bad english, i’m ukrainian ;)
- 4October 12th, 2008 2:36 pm
Great Collection!
I agree… I miss this slowly fading art. - 5October 12th, 2008 2:38 pm
IMHO, this is a way better cover for “Th’ good, th’ bad ‘n’ th’ ugly”:
http://spaghettiwesterns.1g.fi/dvd/Good_Bad_Ugly_SE_DVD_eng.jpgOtherwise, nice list, but it got a bit uninspired in the end before the last click after “Man With One Red Shoe”, and what about Raiders of the lost ark? :o
- 6October 12th, 2008 2:42 pm
Nice collection! I love the “Vacancy” the best!
- 7October 12th, 2008 2:53 pm
The THX 1138 poster is not precisely the actual movie poster, this is the design for the special edition on dvd
- 8October 12th, 2008 2:54 pm
great collection, but where is jurassic park? forrest gump?
- 9October 12th, 2008 3:21 pm
I honestly do not see how some of these posters made it here.
- 10October 12th, 2008 3:55 pm
Wow….Great Post…..PULP FICTION is the best.
- 11October 12th, 2008 4:13 pm
Great that Saul Bass’ work (”Vertigo”) made it in there – he’s the master! You can see several other posters in this collection that directly reference or draw inspiration from him (particularly the mean streets one). And that one for The Shining that uses his original typography of course!
- 12October 12th, 2008 4:26 pm
So inspiring! Most of these are really amazing. I think the first W post is lackluster and I’ve always been bothered by the placement of the type in Moulin Rouge with the stars names. Given that they are catering to some pretty big egos I can understand, otherwise its gorgeous. Love to see so many traditional paintings and illustrations in there- I love paintings done on the computer just as much but sometimes people forget about our design past!
This makes me want to do more post designs. What a creative field!
- 13October 12th, 2008 4:31 pm
Once again a great collection. I really like the old movies and retro posters. The W poster is lame. Funny quotes but the poster does not compete with the others here. I don’t see anything appealing or compelling about it.
- 14October 12th, 2008 5:32 pm
Woah, where did you find those posters for The Fountain? Were they the international versions or something? They are awesome.
- 15October 12th, 2008 6:15 pm
I love the “Perfume” movie poster, so much so when I seen it in the movie store I bought it due to the cover, and it turned out to be a very good movie!
- 16October 12th, 2008 6:15 pm
Chinatown ?
- 17October 12th, 2008 6:19 pm
this is just a collection of movies the author enjoyed.
- 18October 12th, 2008 6:28 pm
great collection. Dug planet of the apes, never seen that one before, it’s a fantastic poster. also vertigo, day watch, v for vendetta and dark knight were great selections.
- 19October 12th, 2008 6:29 pm
Awesome :)
- 20October 12th, 2008 6:33 pm
Great list ! Thanks you
- 21October 12th, 2008 6:38 pm
Great collection. Love the work done in posters. very inspiring and most of these are really amazing.
Roshan
- 22October 12th, 2008 6:54 pm
Though I dislike retro style, I found some interesting retro posters in this list. I liked ‘The Birds’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Perfume’, and ‘American Beuaty’ the best.
Great efforrt Alessandro Cattaneo and Smashing Magazine Team, thank you so much.
- 23October 12th, 2008 7:15 pm
you may also be interested in:
http://www.vivsin.com/2008/10/16-very-creative-movie-posters/ - 24October 12th, 2008 7:57 pm
I would like to add “The Spirit” [the three-split poster version]
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/images/spirit-poster1.jpg - 25October 12th, 2008 8:11 pm
i only remember posters of forrest gump and nightmare before christmas
- 26October 12th, 2008 9:00 pm
superb work man. i have a new set of movies to watch now :)
- 27October 12th, 2008 9:03 pm
Nice, The Color Purple would be a nice one to add
- 28October 12th, 2008 9:22 pm
wow… what a nice collection of movie posters… like from tarantino´s films
- 29October 12th, 2008 9:54 pm
Cepillin? Cepillin?…I fucking love Cepillin …haha… he’s he greatest of all clowns…even though I hate clowns he’s still an amazing character…fond memories from Mexico….
- 30October 12th, 2008 10:41 pm
I love those movie posters. One of my biggest dreams, to make my own one.. :D
Thanx for this article!
(Why don’t you make an article about DVD Covers? Because they often don’t look so great like the movie posters…) - 31October 12th, 2008 10:42 pm
Cool, great post (Y)
- 32October 12th, 2008 11:05 pm
Wow, I love this collection !
- 33October 12th, 2008 11:56 pm
I have to agree with a previous poster. This list seems to be a list of posters the author enjoyed. The Bank Job? Kill Bill? Cloverfiled Those are hardly artistic examples.
I’d also like to mention The Thing and Planet of the Apes posters are from special alamo draft house theater screenings. The shining poster is from an art show and a few other posters are not from original screenings.
- 34October 13th, 2008 12:27 am
Puhlease… I love movies and their related artworks, but kill bill as a good example of a beautiful poster? Come on!
There are quite a few that are really good though, and ranging from old to new. There may be a bit too much emphasis on the new IMO, as it’s far more inspiring to me to think of the trouble designers had to go through 20, 30 years ago to make posters that rival today’s Photoshopped stuff.Also, try writing your posts in a word processor and running spell check prior to posting them online. “We went trought different decades of movie history” WTF is trought?
- 35October 13th, 2008 12:30 am
Cool collection, but why is there no asian movie, I miss thous a little …
- 36October 13th, 2008 12:47 am
Smashing strikes again. A regurgitated list of posters for popular movies is not fresh content. Unedited, guest authored content will be the downfall of this magazine.
Movie posters are not a “forgotten art”. Poster art is highly celebrated and recognised. The author seems confused in the intro and contradicts himself, before going on to post a few good examples of iconic movie poster design, mixed in amongst some forty-odd mediocre, run of the mill, mainstream posters.
Once again, a poor show from SM.
- 37October 13th, 2008 1:16 am
Love the Grinhouse series ! … There were some I had seen but others are quite new to me cause I saw the public poster only such as the Dark Knight one ! Also love that retro feel in some of the posters ! A true work of art indeed !
- 38October 13th, 2008 1:28 am
why was the poster for the ring two with the girl sitting in the chair not included? I think thats one of the most powerful and disturbing movie posters i’ve ever seen
- 39October 13th, 2008 1:30 am
the japanese poster of “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain”
http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ameliext8.jpg
and:
- 40October 13th, 2008 1:39 am
although it is a great poster, blestenation is not a movie but a music band.
- 41October 13th, 2008 1:56 am
Great but…
No french poster, no indian poster, not enought from the rest of the world (>80% of the population).Good job anyway.
- 42October 13th, 2008 1:56 am
Grindhouse?! Black Snake Moan’s a much better poster of that style…
I think this list should be renamed to ‘Cool posters what I like’. Posters are STILL playing the part of the informative advertising material in cinemas – with sometimes stages of teaser, main campaign etc. Would love to know where the author goes to the cinema.
- 43October 13th, 2008 2:02 am
The Birds poster is not the original, that was done recently by Corey Holms for “Now Showing” Exploring the Lost “Art” of the Film Poster.http://www.flickr.com/photos/keepsmesane/sets/72157601618281265/
- 44October 13th, 2008 2:31 am
Agree with logicalnot. Seven Samurai’s (B & W) poster is one of the best in terms of composition, amongst other Kurosawa’s. Nice collection
- 46October 13th, 2008 3:07 am
Yeah thats why the category is named ‘Monday Inspiration’!
Great inspiration as always, thank you! - 47October 13th, 2008 3:55 am
I know there’s so many that you couldn’t include all of them but, honestly, these seem much better to me than Cloverfield or one of the Grindhouses…
http://www.impawards.com/2006/prestige_ver5.html
http://www.impawards.com/2006/madeas_family_reunion_ver2.html
- 48October 13th, 2008 4:08 am
Just subject Alessandro Cattaneo to some delicate caning and we can get back to business for future updates, then. >:3
- 49October 13th, 2008 5:08 am
Cool Top 50 – Some i expected to see there, some I didn’t. Would have been disapointed if Mean Streets and Vertigo were not in there though.
Cheers
Goodfella - 50October 13th, 2008 5:08 am
That’s awesome! I had Beyond A Reasonable Doubt hanging in my studio for years, right beside my Clockwork Orange. Chris
- 51October 13th, 2008 5:15 am
Lovely!
- 52October 13th, 2008 6:05 am
Propper bo!
- 53October 13th, 2008 6:32 am
cepillin bravo!!
- 54October 13th, 2008 6:57 am
For goodness sake, these are just 50 beautiful posters, its just an inspiration for designers like me, why do some of you keep complaining that this is better, that is better,
“I honestly do not see how some of these posters made it here.”,
oh come on, the title did not say that these are ‘the best movie posters ever’, did it? Just merely inspiration.
Anyways good work SM, I loved the post!
- 55October 13th, 2008 8:20 am
nice list, I’d also add:
The Exorcist
Jaws
Any Monty Python ala Terry Gilliam
ET
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Yellow Submarine
Casablanca
Metropolis - 56October 13th, 2008 8:34 am
Nice collection, some really nice stuff!
- 57October 13th, 2008 9:06 am
Some are actually pretty ugly (Excalibur). But well loved for being typical. Thanks!
- 58October 13th, 2008 9:09 am
I love The Dark Knight “Why So Serious” the most.
- 59October 13th, 2008 9:11 am
Simply amazing! The one from Dexter is terrific!
- 60October 13th, 2008 9:17 am
What?! you forgot Pink Floyd The Wall!
- 61October 13th, 2008 9:37 am
I have the Pulp Fiction poster in my office at work. Gets a lot of comments. Great for my Marketing role. Thanks for spreading the word!
- 62October 13th, 2008 9:45 am
I love the Vacancy poster. That one word jumps out at you. Zodiac design is cool too. Love the fog use.
onwired.com
- 63October 13th, 2008 10:44 am
Awesome! That’s a expected for a long time. Good choice Smashing.
- 64October 13th, 2008 11:53 am
Stars Wars will alway’s be a classic!
- 65
- 66October 13th, 2008 1:33 pm
Very nice collection! (;
- 67October 13th, 2008 1:42 pm
Essenitally posters after 1970. Why ?
- 68October 13th, 2008 4:17 pm
I can’t believe you didn’t include Scarface.
Shame on you.
- 69October 13th, 2008 6:37 pm
one poster that I thought was pretty nice was the one for Midnight Meat Train
- 70October 13th, 2008 6:45 pm
The Sweeney Todd poster features the Big Ben in the window. This was removed from the original poster because the Big Ben didn’t exist at the time of Sweeney Todd.
- 71October 14th, 2008 6:05 am
Hi, excellent collection indeed. Great job! One missing from the list, in my opinion, is Kieslowski’s “Trois Couleurs Bleu” (Three colours blue), showing mysteriously beautiful Juliette Binoche in one of her best roles ever.
- 72October 14th, 2008 6:49 am
Thanks for a great list of movie visual posters
No Subscription Required - 73October 14th, 2008 7:23 am
How does “The Good German” qualify when it’s nothing more than a ripoff of the iconic “Casablanca” poster (which, btw, is an unforgiveable omission)?
- 74October 14th, 2008 10:26 am
@ Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956)
I think it’s all about marketing. - 75October 14th, 2008 11:59 am
BLADE RUNNER?!?!?!?!
And if that poster for The Graduate is not a late ’60’s iconic image for all times, I will eat my hat!
- 76October 14th, 2008 1:25 pm
Umm.. you searched through DECADES of movie history and yet boring posters for “W.” appear on this list? C’mon! There are soo many lush, beautiful, inspiring posters from the early decades of film. I realize that not everyone may agree, but I think you left out quite a few “decades” here, hitting only the obvious highlights (”Vertigo”, etc).
Not to mention you opened this article with a paragraph about how movie posters and advertising were crucial to movie’s success in the early days; yet you hardly have any early movie posters, which had to work their hardest to sell the movie to the viewer without any internet or television marketing.
- 77October 14th, 2008 2:45 pm
Very nice set!
- 78October 15th, 2008 3:17 am
dwdwd
- 79October 15th, 2008 8:18 am
I love the sparsely designed posters, as well as the ‘era’ themed posters, (Death Proof & 28 Weeks Later). The pick for The Bank Job, however, is NOT the most beautiful choice for that movie.
This one is classic and quite possibly number 1 in overall design.
- 80October 15th, 2008 8:20 am
I would love to be able to see tutorials on how to create some of the effects in these movies posters. Great collection!
- 81October 15th, 2008 8:42 am
“The Shining” poster is for an art show about the movie, not a movie.
- 82October 16th, 2008 2:47 am
A great selection as always; the only thing is Blestenation isn’t a filme, it’s a rap music group!
- 83October 16th, 2008 5:42 am
When your sitting there, between cups of coffee and your vision and imagination is starting to flag, the Smashing team’s pages are always there to jolt you back into production. Lets take it in the spirit it is given and not forever criticise, great work SM.
- 84October 16th, 2008 9:19 am
Almost every one would be considered modern. And almost every one is American. If you factored in posters from Japan, Europe, Eastern Europe, India etc. You would have a potentially huge, interesting and exciting series.
- 85October 16th, 2008 11:28 am
These posters are awesome, but… Why there is no Godfather
It’s hard to rate poster with no thinking about the movie. Respect ;)
- 86October 16th, 2008 2:16 pm
There was a feature like this on another site, and the most captivating example I found there was the Downhill Racer Poster
- 87October 16th, 2008 3:18 pm
tarantino fan much?
lol. im pretty sure that the reason why most of his movie posters are of massive amounts of badass is because he is a fan of movie posters if im not mistaken… along with foreign language martial arts movies from the 70s. lol. - 88October 17th, 2008 1:38 am
Whether you have seen some of them or not, it’s a very refreshing flash back.
Cheers Smashing!
- 89October 20th, 2008 2:03 pm
Talk about a blast from the past!
- 90October 21st, 2008 7:06 am
Planet of the Apes was done by artist Tod Slater for Alamo He does amazing gig posters as well…
http://www.toddslater.net/ - 91October 25th, 2008 1:10 pm
Hi could you please post more about perfume?
- 92November 5th, 2008 9:19 pm
wow~ they are awesome!!!
- 93November 14th, 2008 10:32 pm
It should be more appreciated, I think.
Really great!!!
I love the dark knight’s poster. - 94November 17th, 2008 2:09 am
Nice collection. I’d also toss ‘Run Lola Run’ (the German version of the poster, not the North American), and Blade Runner into the mix.
- 95November 17th, 2008 8:48 am
Real Nice. What about “Premonition”? I think it deserves to be in this list.
- 96November 30th, 2008 10:54 am
these collection are terrific.
- 97December 1st, 2008 12:49 pm
sometimes i think i have to live….live for seeing the best creator of the man …..the movie collection is really very nice.
- 98December 2nd, 2008 5:16 am
love ‘the birds’ poster. can’t explain why, but i reckon its insane!
- 99December 12th, 2008 7:18 pm
good ones, i also really like the burn after reading poster
- 100December 13th, 2008 5:57 am
Love the collection. What about Hard Candy?
- 101January 5th, 2009 7:36 pm
these r wierd posters
- 102February 7th, 2009 1:35 am
great collection guys. Some very interesting posters.
- 103February 11th, 2009 5:46 pm
Bastante Buenas
Very Good! - 104March 5th, 2009 5:08 pm
Like the list some nice posters on there i hadnt seen and shows the great art behind these
But..
Metroplis has to be on that list one of the best movie posters of all time!! - 105March 20th, 2009 3:53 am
Forrest Gump and Perfume very good films, definitely I would recommend if you have not followed.
- 106April 13th, 2009 1:59 am
original list
- 107April 29th, 2009 1:55 am
Great posters, thanks :)
- 108April 30th, 2009 3:51 am
thx alot
- 109May 6th, 2009 6:31 pm
Great collection!
To all those complaining, the author doesn’t claim this is a definitive list or even a list of the BEST posters, just that they are beautiful. And that they are.
Thank you very much, I feel inspired now!
- 110May 8th, 2009 6:50 am
Metropolis is one of the best ever.. here’s a preview
i even dare say that Spirit is a copy of it. - 111June 4th, 2009 1:31 pm
My favorite is the photo effect on the Sweeny Todd poster
- 112June 12th, 2009 5:27 am
Good list, some great alternative versions.
I was surprised to see that Pan’s Labyrinth wasn’t on the list, the movie has so many wicked alternative poster versions.
- 113July 13th, 2009 11:39 pm
http://img188.imageshack.us/i/2004152177709663037rs.jpg/
http://img193.imageshack.us/i/10000bcposter.jpg/
thx - 114July 23rd, 2009 6:05 pm
Stop asking for a thumbs up, it’s pathetic and only shows how desperate you are for a little attention.
- 115August 19th, 2009 1:37 am
CoooOOoooL!!………..
- 116August 29th, 2009 6:43 pm
These are all pretty terrible…guess you happened to pick some of the worst
- 117September 21st, 2009 3:08 pm
great collection, I’d like to add Barry Lindon’s poster:
http://www.mondomostre.it/images/estateraffaello/locandine/barry_lindon_06.jpg
- 118September 25th, 2009 12:32 am
I have a lovely poster for “the perfume” hanging on the wall even more beautyful than the one shown here (I think it’s the italian version)
- 119October 4th, 2009 9:12 am
It has to be the Star Wars poster that wins it for me… check this guys alternative Star wars prints I came across … I really like ‘the entirety of space’ print.
- 00
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Those posters are great. Nice collection.