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Why do so many movie posters look like complete shit nowadays?

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Knastluder

Member
The title says it. I already posted this in the box office 2016 bomb prediction thread but this deserves it own one.

So can someone tell me why since 10 years or so movie posters look like complete generic shit? I can't fathom the fact how bad these things look. Do people really look at this God of egypts shit and say "Yeah that looks really neat and interesting for the audience" whereas a more logical and absolute natural response would be more like "I'm sorry boss but this look like garbage and If you disagree it's because you are lobotomized." The have months in preparations and that is the best they could come up with? It's probably not the artist fault because someone tells them what to do. Does nobody give a shit anymore? Is it too expensive? Do studios think the audience is too stupid if they don't plaster the faces of their super stars on the poster? Have you seen the IMAX posters for Star Wars TFA? These look great not the other one.

Here the God of egypt poster

Gods_of_Egypt_poster.jpg


Good star wars


Bad one
 
M

maxcriden

Member
I imagine a lot less effort is put into cultivating excellent and original movie posters these days because they've probably become a very tiny marketing tool compared to what they used to be, since the advent of the internet age. It is really unfortunate, though.

Here are a couple relatively recent movie posters I really dug:

MoonDVD.jpg


500_barack2.jpg
Click to expand...
 
E

EroticSushi

Member
They want the ones that market to the general public. Artistic ones look better overall but that's not what they're going for.
 
P

phillipgessert

Member
In the first place, because they want to show the stars of the show, since that's a selling point. I agree that there used to be more craftsmanship in movie poster design, but ultimately these are ads, and they're meant to make everyday folks buy a ticket. Not decorate your apartment.
 
M

Messypandas

Member
I've heard it related to psycological studies. People can be wary of films with over-stylised or "complicated" art, becuade they think its high brow. Thats the reason alot of ad's on dodgy websites are written with comic sans and crappy clip art.
 
G

George Oscar Bluth II

Banned
They just don't give a shit anymore. Why hire an artist who can make a good poster with some time when you can get the intern to do it in 2 hours?

That Star Wars poster is actually one of the few good ones I have seen in the last few years.
 
R

RobotHaus

Unconfirmed Member
maxcriden said:
I imagine a lot less effort is put into cultivating excellent and original movie posters these days because they've probably become a very tiny marketing tool compared to what they used to be, since the advent of the internet age. It is really unfortunate, though.

Here are a couple relatively recent movie posters I really dug:
Click to expand...

Why is Obama on that poster?
 
K

Knastluder

Member
phillipgessert said:
In the first place, because they want to show the stars of the show, since that's a selling point. I agree that there used to be more craftsmanship in movie poster design, but ultimately these are ads, and they're meant to make everyday folks buy a ticket. Not decorate your apartment.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get that, but why not both? Do the bad one with all of your stars and do another one which looks 10times better. I mean in the same theater, people woudn't be confused.
ANd speaking of lacking the craftsmanship here this one is great, with all the important actors .

MPW-78987
 
M

maxcriden

Member
RobotHaus said:
Why is Obama on that poster?
Click to expand...

I'm laughing so hard right now. I saw a modified one with Einstein and I was like wth. But this was from Fox Searchlight's website so I didn't imagine it would be a modified poster and didn't give it a second thought.

I did wonder when I saw "barack" in the .jpg file name but I even thought to myself "whoa, some intern really likes Obama."
7022a273e44a3fb279fb736cd6138d96.png


Here's the real one!

poster-5fe7b8dd-ae4b-450f-b972-9dda7b8c5883.jpg
Click to expand...
 
V

v0yce

Member
While I agree with the OP's premise, I find that style for the "good" SW poster really unattractive and it's way too common in the pop art poster scene.

That over abundant line art is gaudy. Everything looks like muscle fibers.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
I don't really have the time right now, but I don't agree with this generalisation. There are some amazing posters recently. I'll just list 10 movie posters off from 2015 for now.

The Lobster
lobster.jpg

Entertainment
wP4ELdY.jpg

Theeb
THEEB-poster.jpg

It Follows
it-follows2.jpg

The Forbidden Room
ForbiddenClara2.jpg

Duke Of Burgundy
DOB_FINAL.jpg

Queen Of Earth
queen-of-earth-2.jpg

Macbeth
20923019878-9486c9beac-o.jpg

Ex Machina
ex-machina-teaser-poster.jpg
Click to expand...
Trainwreck
Trainwreck-poster.jpg
Click to expand...
The Tale Of Princess Kaguya
tale-of-princess-kaguya-blu-ray.jpg

The Martian
33_40414_themartian_v2.jpg

Red Army
red_army_ver2_xlg.jpg

Sicario
sicario-poster.JPG

Mad Max Fury Road
tumblr_nosb1lNyPC1u817u0o1_500.png

MM2.png

10636937_661847177254140_3001186770164503894_o.jpg
Click to expand...
 
P

Pops Maellard

Member
I Wrote a 6,500 word analysis of this for my rhetorical analysis class last semester. It's a stretch to say all modern film posters are lacking in creativity, but there's a myriad of reasons behind what makes a poster "bad".
 
D

Dinjooh

Member
onadesertedisland said:
Design by focus group. No one wants to risk, so they evaluate and choose on consensus. You have what doesn't offend, but pleases no one.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Last movie poster we did for a client ended up with a bit over 60 different layouts, and lo-and-behold, one of the most conservative ones were chosen.
 
K

Knastluder

Member
Ok, my statement that all posters are shitty was a little bit exaggerated, you will probably find a piece of gold for every turd I guess. When I said 10 years ago I didn't mean exactly 10 years. What I meant was that a long time ago there was a shift from good to great to meh. Remeber going to the video store and rent a vhs, all you had was the cover(basically a poster) if you didn't know anything about the movie and oh man so many bad movies had good looking covers.
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
Knastluder said:
The title says it. I already posted this in the box office 2016 bomb prediction thread but this deserves it own one.
Click to expand...

The fact nobody really responded to it there kinda proves it didn't deserve its own thread, though.

And the premise has been pretty solidly countered already. Poster Art isn't what it was in the 60s/70s/80s, but there's still a lot of striking imagery being used to advertise these films. But posters have basically been replaced by trailers online. The poster design is just visual noise once you're already at the theater, and you're already at the theater because you already saw a trailer or a commercial, not a poster.

There's also a great secondary market putting in work to provide that 70s/80s artistic touch to movies if you're a big fan of that stuff, too. Mondo should be a bookmark already if it isn't.
 
K

Knastluder

Member
Bobby Roberts said:
The fact nobody really responded to it there kinda proves it didn't deserve its own thread, though.
Click to expand...

And who are you to judge this? There are many topics in the world where nobody talks about but should. Plus many many people responded in this thread, so I guess you are wrong.
 
S

SchrodingerC

Member
Becuase why waste the marketing budget when they can use a GA intern. Just slap all the actors on the poster, go crazy with teal and orange, stick the title on, and done!

At least some film companies still bother to make beautiful posters.

EDIT: I still remember seeing this ugly think at my theater:

the-hunger-games-movie-poster-121620114.jpg
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
A lot of them, actually. Either its massive text over massive face, someone small facing a massive background, or a collage of motherfuckers looking like its a versus match.

Edit: Ahh yes, silhouette masking. How could I ever forget that. Atleast they look like someone made an effort.
 
T

Toothless

Member
That Star Wars poster is great. I don't know what you're talking about; easily one of the better ones in recent years.

Studios probably don't care much any more though since posters are more a formality than actual marketing with TV spots being the only thing that really matters.
 
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