What Killed The Movie Poster?
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Movie Posters used to be one of the mail selling points for films in Hollywood. A great poster can tell an entire movies story in a single captivating image. Though as the years progress, and IP ownership remains king, poster design has become messy and uninspired. Where have the days of Saul Bass, Bob Peak, and Drew Struzan gone? Is the art of movie poster design truly dead?
#movieposterdesign #movieposter #nerdstalgic
I think the oversaturation plays a big part in the lost form of movie posters. Back then, you had one shot, a single chance to make an impression. Today, you have a dozen chances, and the poster is probably the last thing an audience member will think about when deciding which movie to watch.
I never knew about posters really, but only when I got to live closer to a cinema.
All the movies I saw till that point were on TV.
Not only that, but I was too young to see some of those in theaters so when I think of the movie, I think of scenes. Tbf, I think of scenes when I think about Spider-Man FFH as well. What posters did was make you pick which ticket you were going to buy when you went to the theater. Now the likelihood you're going at all is significantly lower.
i think that's no reason to make the poster so dull. i mean, back in the 60-90 they had a lot of chanches of wonderful movies too
@@calebzamudio9445 i think the many chances theyre talking about is in regards to marketing avenues
Nowadays, we have 4 versions of the poster. And this was the case for a long time when they would change it based on the location but we can see all versions now.
The artwork of Drew Struzan and the music of John Williams is the definition of iconic cinema. Great video as always.
Struzan, Williams, Lucas and Spielberg.
💯
We owe so much to them, that's what I always felt certain familiarity with those movies, I guess I had a great childhood watching movies.
"The artwork of Drew Struzan and the music of John Williams is the definition of iconic cinema."
You are correct and I completely agree with you.
The GOATS
I think the floating head poster being more prominent is interesting because the current state of cinema is being run more by franchises rather actors
True, but you do see it with some. The blu ray art for no way home just has spiderman, mask on, with dr strange.
Well, familiar faces are attached to franchises again and again. The floating heads aren't there to highlight the actors, but the characters they play. Those are the familiar faces executives care about.
@@AVdE10000 no, otherwise youd have superheroes with their masks and helmets on. It's why spiderman homecoming's bad main poster had shots of tom holland, RDJ, and micheal keaton as well as shots of spiderman, iron man, and vulture.
You'd think it'd be the other way around.
As a graphic designer, I really enjoyed this video. It's the small details in the artwork that really brings life to the image. Speaking of posters, you should check out Olly Moss. He's made some incredible movie/video game posters. He made my favorite video game cover art, Resistance 3. You should check it out.
@@MC--- @Gerald Reid Those are really nice :) The strong Alfons Mucha influence is pretty obvious in all of them though, i yet have to see a recent poster artist who strays away from the whole Art Nouveau influence (i'm not saying there aren't any, i'm genuinely curious and eager to discover some).
He's made some very awesome posters!
he is the one who did the art for Firewatch right? I absolutely love it
OOOOH! It's the landscape in a character's silhouette guy! I've seen his work before, many years ago, but totally forgot about him. Thanks for bringing his work back to my mind!
There's one movie poster from Spider-Man: No Way Home I truly think is a work of art. Peter has his back towards the audience looking down defeated as snow falls down on him. All around him are billboards with his face plastered saying Enemy #1. It gives soooo much weight on what the film is about.
True.
Love the first Spiderman movie with the city back drop in his eyes
Even then, it's one of the dozens of posters of a character in the center of the picture with their backs to the viewer.
@@rodrigoandrade256 that's such a simple template tho so I dont think you can blame any poster for that
I think the other secondary posters for a film nowadays not the main one and the only poster I like with floating heads is the avengers film cause u know
I had a unit in my design uni course, where we focused a lot on movie posters. We are taught to analyse past posters and how they got the message communicated to the audience , through colours, imagery and composition etc. Thankfully we dive into such things as alternative posters as well, basically posters that are unconventional from already exiting films. basically fan art but poster form. They can appeal to nostalgia of an old film or the intrigue of something different. Please give a quick search to alternative movie posters, they are quite amazing to look at! So the designers arent just learning the same techniques, but are actually actively learning to diverge from the oversaturated designs. Its the lack of risk people are willing to take in such areas that are limiting and bland.
Today's audience is busy, stressed, have too many options, are low-key dumb, and just want to be shown that their favorite actor/actress is in a movie. That's the reason for all the same-ey designs and floating head posters 🤷♀️🤪
Whiplash has some amazing alt posters. The one with him at the end of the drum sticks and there is another one with a bandaid where the cotton is sheet music and there’s splatters of blood. Both portray the mood of the film so well
alternative movie posters look amazing!!
Teaser posters are often my favorite kind. They tend to be more conceptual, abstract and truly artistic. They aren't trying to sell you on everybody involved, a bunch of actor's faces or even the plot of the film. They're all about the concept, the mood, the mystery. It's what they don't tell you that creates hype. It's what little they tell you they creates intrigue.
Film key art posters are a work of art.
What bothers me the most is that films today will still have great key art posters, but for some reason the most basic one will grace the cover of the DVD/Bluray packaging, making for incredibly dull art direction.
The scream 6 teaser poster is a perfect example, one of the best to come out in recent years
I think the Parasite Movie Poster still has many elements of the golden era of movie posters
Yes, also the lighthouse. I haven't even seem the movie yet but the poster is stuck in my mind
The tagline on the poster for Parasite is perfect: "Act like you own the place".
I think that cult movies break the trend. I liked the "Nomadland" poster very much.
simple, not 10 heads poster. Is stupid
The most recent movie poster I’ve loved was for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s visually stunning, but also contains so many easter eggs and in doing so portrays the chaos of the film
One of my favorite modern movie posters, its great
Kind of hard to look at on a small screen though, it kinda just looks like a mess and you scroll right past it when you see it in a list of options on a streaming service
@@spencerboyce6227 i mean, that is the idea, it has everything hahaha
@@azazel5958 lol
The red one, the one used commercially, is horrible. But the painted one is quite nice. Beautiful to the eyes although doesn't explain anything and everything is too small.
I never realised how the posters have changed drastically. There are very few movie posters nowadays that I would call art.
That's because it's an incredibly selective and slanted video. There are still incredible movie posters made today, and tons of shitty ones were made in the past. Look up the alternative black and white poster for Ridley Scott's The Last Duel. It's probably the best movie poster of the decade so far, but so simple yet effective. But you won't see Nerdstalgic bring it up because of his narrative.
There are a lot of great posters actually, This guy is just blinded by the Nostalgia
Here is my take: when I saw Dune, I was amazed by the movie's photography. Scenes meticulously filmed to be beautiful, memorable, and sublime. They encapsulate perfectly certain aspects of the movie because they're part of it.
So, maybe the industry could start to use movie frames as its posters, adding the name of the movie and the actors over it.
It can definitely be done, but one thing that's interesting is that just because a still from a movie looks phenomenal is no guarantee that there's an arrangement of type text that can effectively supplement it in poster form.
A studio would have to buck the century-long standard of making their primary posters vertical. And even if they did find a stunning still from the movie to use for primary poster marketing, there would still likely be some tweaking and supplementing to give it balance yet convey all of the information needed. Marketing would otherwise be relying too heavily on the cinematographer to deliver a poster-appropriate still.
That said, I would love it is posters went the way less is more, and changed things up from time to time.
Best example of this I can think of is Chernobyl's. It's pretty simple, it's a frame from a scene of the series, but it sells the whole idea of the show perfectly
Yeah, Dune had some aweful posters. It actually had some good ones as well, but they only used the bad ones for promotion, such a shame.
@@r.c.c.10 The teaser poster for Dune Part 2 looks pretty cool, due largely to the relative simplicity of it. But that's the thing, it's just a teaser poster, and we can probably expect the theatrical one released about a month before the film comes out to be another "floating heads" poster
@@christianwise637haven’t seen that poster yet but I’m glad you mentioned it, it does look really good
The internet allows us to keep up with movies, the poster no longer has the weight and prominence it once had. It’s job is now dissolved into other marketing strategies.
And given the ride of franchises the purpose of instilling a story through the poster is no longer needed. We all know we are going to see the next installment of a major franchise.
No Way Home's poster overcomplicated the poster. Spider-Man 1 and 2 from way back in the day had posters that said nothing and everything at the same time. Just the awe at seeing the spiderman against buildings during the golden hour.
The John Wick 2 poster is absolute fire. Conveys the entire plot of the film perfectly, and even foreshadows the ending with the open contract on his head. The world against John, and John against the world.
Of all the John Wick posters Nerdstalgic could've used to demonstrate the point, it has to be the most iconic poster of all the John Wick films...
@@AL2009man Haha, right? I thought the exact same. There's plenty of JW posters that are just his face or visage standing there. But even those have some cool lighting trick or edge to them that's specific to that JW movie. JW4 in particular had some gorgeous poster designs from multiple different artists.
The worst part is that there are amazing alternative Imax and Dolby posters that deserve to be remembered but are forgotten.
TRUE the Imax poster for Frozen 2 is so beautiful i still have it on my wall, i got it on opening night :')
I think what really killed me was how The Batman had tones of fantastically beautiful posters leading up to release, and then for the main poster they still went with the floating heads. Literally the worst looking poster in the selection used only because it’s “marketable”.
Yea, need money. U in the wrong business
I feel like The Martian is one of the few good headshot posters, the “Bring him home” across Damon/Watney’s face makes it feel like some motivational poster that would actually be in that world
I think one of the posters for Kong: Skull Island was really well done. The one with King Kongs' silhouette with the sunset and 5 soldiers on water forming a triangle pointing towards Kong. This might be the most recent example of a really good poster, in my opinion at least.
That’s the official poster and that’s definitely an eye catching example.
there are tonnes of really good movie posters today as well as horrible movie posters back in the past , what the video listed here is kinda biased - indie films and eastern versions of foreign movie posters are an example of what i mean
chinese version of 1917 movie poster looks great while the american one looks like your generic "man standing" poster
plus studios release a lot of versions of movie posters for some reason
modern movie posters that i love are:
little miss sunshine
Gojira (2016)
Wandering Earth's carved book pages poster
Jingle Ma's Mulan
The Golden Era's international poster
Masters in Forbidden city 2016
Almost all the Monsterverse films have dope ass posters that don't really fall into this issue. I don't recall ever seeing a single Monsterverse poster with the actors on it. Its just the monster
@@hansolo3154 That’s actually true. The only one with humans is the Skull Island poster but it isn’t any of the main cast and they’re walking away from the viewer towards Kong. Very good framing.
Parasite?
That's a little weird to tell that head salad's posters are wrong when all "good old" poster are head salad but drawn by hand. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the other arguments.
That was the closing statement of the video
I agree. It feels dismissive and biased. While not of the quality of days passed, they haven’t strayed too far from the template the video spends half the time praising.
i think its more on the fact of back then, it was limited to significant roles or actors, and were more expressive. Even trying to communicate the movies tone etc. But now its over saturated, too many actors faces, insignificant roles, and everything looks the same, no matter what movie it is. Some of complete different franchises would literally have the same colour pallete and composition , that if you squint you cant tell which movie is which.
There's a big difference between showing the two leads' faces, and having the entire cast of Endgame packed into a mob scene. In bad light, too.
I would have gone with just Stark, Cap, Thor, and Thanos. Those three are the classic "core" Avengers, and of course the villain who drives the entire story.
I think the issue is that the movie posters of today are imitations of those older posters, because they are what is already established, and what works. It's what businesses do. Businesses are not run by creative people. They are run by decision makers, and creativity and decision making are not the same thing. So businesses decide to repeat what already works. They do so in a way that is like making a photocopy, where you lose something of the original, but it's still like 90% there. It's also not like these mega corporations can't afford to hire an artist to be bold and do something different. That 10th anniversary Shawshank Redemption poster is much more evocative of the feeling of the movie than the original poster was even though it uses some of the same imagery.
This is an interesting topic to discuss since movie posters are such an under appreciated art form that not only is mean to advertise a film, but summarize the entire plot, tone, and vision of the film's story. I appreciate old style movie posters that were hand drawn, hand painted, or matte painted, just as much as I appreciate modern movie posters that are done on the computer or photoshop since technology and art evolves, but at the same time I can understand why a lot of people are fed up with the digitally made film posters of today. For me, most movie posters now lack that artistic flair to them, as they just feel like they use the same color scheme (Disney for example is obsessed with blue and orange), same format, are bloated with so many characters or elements that doesn't feel pleasing to the eye, such as most (if not all) modern day blockbusters, or feel corporate rather than artistic (look at dungeons and dragon for example). I wish we can go back to the simpler days of movie posters using few elements, a black background with a single image on it, or have a unique look to it, and I know I'm not alone when I say that. Thankfully some movie posters today do have a unique look to them that actually represents the film quite well or go back to being hand-drawn/painted, along with being pleasing to the eye as works of art.
Commercials, trailers, posters, merchandise, interviews, etc.
It's all over-saturated greed and it's everywhere. All future art is going to feel lifeless compared to times when people actually created art, not corporations. And the only art that will feel like anything is that which points this fact out.
Weirdly enough, I have to say the poster for Cocaine Bear stood out when I was at the theater and saw it in the hallway. No head salad, just a bear roaring, white powdery effects all around it, all black & white except the Bear in the title being red. It conveys the idea of the movie pretty well I think, though I haven't seen the movie so it could be completely wrong. But it did stand out compared to all the head salad ones.
I remember seeing this poster for Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse, it was just still frame from the scene where main killer is unmasked and you see his deformed albino face just roaring. Underneath it simply said "Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse" in big orange font. That was the poster. Just title and still frame taken directly from the movie scene. To this day, one of the creepiest posters I've seen as kid, and keep in mind this was actually in late 90s when they had "re-release" in one of those theaters in my hometown that would occasionally play older, "cult" movies. However the poster itself was original movie poster they used for it's 1981 release.
I think I read somewhere that during the early years of the MCU they did make a few variations of the movie posters, some were very stylised and hand drawn, using silhouettes and experimental compositions as well as the posters that they usually use.
They claimed that they showed these poster variants to focus groups and that a lot of them said they preferred the head salad posters because they clearly showed the cast members which would make people want to see them.
This is sad
I think that the Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is a perfect example for what movie posters should be like. It has a story, it grabs the viewer’s attention and has massive detail in the small corner.
Good point. It's like the film. Reminds you of older cinema, a different time. Even being shot on actual film and not digital. A love letter to movies going from not just an escape but blockbusters and events.
To be totally honest with myself, I never really gave it a Second thought about movie posters. I usually watch trailers to determine if I want to go and see the movies but yes, there are lots of iconic movie posters, that make you want to see the movies. Great video!
I gotta argue that the posters for Scream 6 were actually really great. Maybe not all of the floating head ones (although they served a purpose for a whodunnit) but the poster you guys displayed on Ghost face in Time Square had a ton of Easter eggs and other stuff in it. I don't think that one was just churned out by some artist who just needed to get something to the studio immediately. I think the Scream franchise actually does a lot of fun (not always successful) things with their marketing.
The scream 6 marketing was great. That aforementioned Ghostface over times square, the Ghostface in a subway window and the Ghostface made up with aerial view of new York were all fantastic.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie may have a cliché poster BUT it used the color circle so beautifully!!
I've had a love for movie posters since I was a kid! I used to walk through every hallway of the theater to browse every one like they were masterpieces in a museum. When I got my own apartment, I actually decorated my walls with them! My favorite of all time was the teaser poster for "Star Wars: Episode I". That image of li'l Ani with Vader's shadow... Awesome! Awesome to the max! I absolutely agree that the art has been lost because I haven't seen a poster that I've wanted to own in a long time. A long time.
Nowadays the main poster is just to show off all the characters while the side posters can be more creative
The Internet has ruined everything.
I think that one of the posters for 2022’s The Batman was absolutely gorgeous. It is the red and black poster with the silhouette of batman in the rain, by far one of my favorite posters of all time.
Alien Covenant, while a terrible film, had one of my favorite posters ever. Just an Alien's head, the release date, and the word "Run" on a black background. Phenomenal
Been watching this channel for a couple of years and this is your best video yet guys! Really feels like the culmination of a lot of lessons and improvements you've been making over that time. Loved it!
Nailed this video hard. Being an artist and video film graduate, I hope to make cool posters for any films I may one day make to pay homage to these legends. I hope studios can wake up
This is the topic I didn't know I needed. Excellent video.
Appreciate it! Thanks for being here
Probably cost cutting. Instead of hiring an outside artist to give a quality poster, theyll just get an inside effects person to photoshop a poster for them. But whats worse than the death of the poster, is the desth of a trailer.
The stupidity of a teaser FOR a teaser trailer and then theres the trailer that gives the best scenes and surprises of the movie away. I cant watch ANY trailer for a movie i want to see because id risk a spoiler.
You are an ARTIST in the questions you ask, the topics you choose. You're a philosopher, and i am here for it!
I work in the cinema industry. There are still plenty of great posters. The studio send us several copies and i always snag one of the good ones for my wall. The Wonder Woman 84 poster comes to mind. It was unique and intriguing in its bold simplicity
4:06 "he dosen't keyboard" that was one of the most beautiful sentences i have ever heard
The lack of John Alvin in this video, one of the greatest poster designers of Disney Animated movies ever, is quite disturbing.
It’s even worse on dvd covers, all they do is put a background colour, the main character (or a few if lucky), and then just put the title on top.
I would argue he was a provider of the face salad, but did so by hand. That's, essentially, what the phantom menace poster was.
I think the poster for Wes Anderson's 'The french dispatch' (the one in cartoon style) is one of the best when it comes to graphics made for recent movies. It's styling that imitates the front pages of The New Yorker references the fact, that the movie is a sort of tribute to the magazine. You can see all the main characters in their most recognisable scenes, and the background setting contains symbols from the stories told in the movie. The colours and style just scream Wes Anderson, so the poster does a great job capturing the feel of the movie, in my view.
Thank you for bringing this man's work to our attention. I was not familiar with the painstaking work that brings even the movie poster, an element of the film we take for granted without thinking about, to life. That iconic image that is conjured when mentioning a movie. And it's not just about the design but the meticulous level of detail and utter craftsmanship. Moviemaking was once an art form. I don't know if it even matters anymore whether or not a.i. does all the work. The way these soulless corporate "by the numbers" people work, it may as well already be that way.
At 3:05, that's an image from The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I was curious as to why Struzan had painted that, since the image wasn't used for the recent movie adaptation. I looked it up. It was a painting Struzan did for The Mist. In the beginning of The Mist, the main character is a movie poster artist. He's shown in his studio making movie posters. A lot of them are for movies that already exist, but one is for The Dark Tower. It's a sly nod to hardcore King fans, who will recognize the image immediately.
The last time I watched a movie by just looking at the poster was ‘The Jungle Book (2016)’. I had gone to watch BvS but it was removed from the theatre, and then I glanced at this amazing Jungle Book poster & immediately decided to watch that. Definitely one of my best movie experiences ever.
One other issue is that the promotion for the film has to span across different aspect ratios. The vertical movie poster is one of them, but there’s also billboards, banner ads, soundtrack album art, etc. It seems like there’s a more of a web approach now, as opposed to things descending from the poster.
as a artist myself, this video was needed
Thanks for watching
I’m glad I’m not the only one that has noticed this
Movie posters from the 50s all looked the same and you could barely tell which one is which. And now we’ve come full circle.
i think modern posters are hated on a bit too much. there's still incredible work being done in the digital poster design space, and the difficulty of that work is being underestimated.
Oh not just movie posters, but book covers as well, especially fantasy
I haven't seen it in the comments yet, but I love the custom artwork done for movies at Alamo Drafthouse. Done by Mondo who appears to be out on their own now doing other things also. They are iconic, and unique.
Mondo was actually purchased by Funko and they are shutting down the poster division of the company. Mondo years ago was legendary, now they are the bargain bin of posters.
@@Nerdstalgic oh no, I didn't quite know what their current state was, as I remember reading something about the split from the Alamo, but my cursory search didn't turn up this unfortunate news. That stinks. I hope there will be more artists or public interest in this part of the movie experience in the future.
I Love the Orginal Spider-Man 3 Poster where Peter has his back turned aginst the wall with the reflection of the black suit in the window
I still remember the great movie posters from my youth -
Jaws, A Clockwork Orange, Alien, Rollerball.
I'd like to mention John Alvin who has done heaps of memorable movie posters over the years and is right up there with Drew Struzan.
Came here to say this. There is a great book that compiled his work.
I hope some day we get illustrated posters back in popularity.
More terribleness from the corporate oligarchy. Creativity is not allowed - it costs the corporations too much and is a risk
Movie posters have gone from true works of art made by talented individuals
To corporate made by committee sludge
Huh so the posters really do represent the movies they're made of
I believe that both movie posters and trailers are suffering at the hands of the same enemy. That enemy is speed. The time from the first trailer/poster to streaming at home is almost the blink of an eye. But before the internet, movie marketing was a slow drip. When a poster appeared in the lobby, we pondered it deeply, like an art critic to a Picasso. Magazines, tv, and newspapers provided small tidbits of information and occasionally a picture or two. We anticipated the film’s release, like a kid anticipates Christmas morning.
But today, we rarely stand in lines outside the theater. We rarely wait in lobbies. We rush in, optionally grab snacks, watch the movie, and rush out to the parking lot. Film marketing and coverage are fed through the internet firehose. We don’t spend weeks discussing the marketing with friends, we watch a UA-cam video that tells us all we need to know.
I am not “bad-mouthing” the internet, or saying things were better “back in my day”. I am saying that something has been lost, as is the natural course of time.
It’s okay to say something was better back in the day if it indeed was better back in the day.
Remedy's Control (video game) had a pretty cool set of posters and key art. The painterly style reminded me of older films.
I miss the days of Drew Strusan and others movie posters. They had character, mystery and art to them that's just not there anymore in today's posters. Technology and impatience killed the movie poster.
Thanks for letting me know about the term "Head salade". I will now be using this in as many conversations as possible.
The part of listing movie poster tropes is almost verbatim from a Doktor Skipper video called the problem with modern movie posters.
Idk if coincidence or what but it’s weird.
I saw a post once on a video like this from a guy that made some crappy modern posters. He said that most of the people making them, including himself, want to make great posters like Drew Struzan did but their bosses and clients just want something fast and cheap and generic.
Ironically it was Struzan's work which destroyed the poster. His compositions are often the exact same as what we see today. posters for films like Harry Potter, blade runner, Temple of Doom, Hellboy, Hook, and his Star Wars posters are in the "Head Salad" compositions. The only difference is that he painted them rather than creating them digitally. Even films like Raiders of the Lost Ark: the theatrical poster was just a painting of Harrison Ford staring at the viewer looking like he needed the restroom, while the re-release poster is just Indiana in a pose and then head salad all around him. Both of these are by Struzan.
I love the sheer endless amount of videos relating to anything vaguely to art „This was better in the past…“
Ok mostly agree. But John Wick 2 with the circle of guns and Knives Out with the circle of knives don't really fit your other examples, and to me are a great representation of what the films are about as well as iconic images that stick in my head when I think about those movies.
Huge movie poster collector here with an emphasison sci-fi, fantasy, and action/adventure movies. Big fan of Struzan's. Most of my collection is from the 80s, the era of my childhood/teens. I agree, in recent decades, movie posters have become boring. I've almost stopped looking for recent posters but continue to hunt for older posters.
You could still do something interesting for multiple character posters. Imagine if for the Mario movie they made posters for Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad, but when you put them next to each other it looks like the character select screen for SMB2 (US), which happens to be a stage with curtains. That could even work for the sequel.
7:00 Ain’t no way you can call the Lord of War and The Truman Show posters soulless. They are two of the best movie posters of all time.
Yeah just a style not to their liking.
Ironic that Nerdstalgic is citing a company churning out these posters and that part of the charm and artistry is gone, when the Nerdstalgic channel pays random people to write their videos so they can churn them out. The posters may not be creative and original, but at least they aren't outright plagiarizing like Nerdstalgic has (due to said "video churning").
6:51 Idk I think calling these two a "trope" is a stretch. I think the John Wick 2 poster is reasonably creative, and Knives Out is not only in a different genre, but that's not even an effect for the poster, it's just a real set-piece in the film lmao
I was a movie poster creator for 5 years. What killed the movie poster is the movie industry itself. They are closed mind to creative artists, they don't want to take creative risks, so they hire less creative artists, ones that won't battle for greater ideas, marketing theam ask them to use previous movie poster as a template to build new posters. That is why you see the same poster, even they are totally new. Creativity is always killed by burocracy and too much corporates decisions. If they would let an artist do his work, then we could see a new golden age of great movie posters. But let's face it, cinema, is now a business more than art, so who care now ?
The industry killed the movie poster, and now using the same tactics, is killing itself. These studios don’t want to take risks, that’s why you get Shrek 5 and all those Spider-Man movies. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s all a formula.
Look up the movie poster for Hugo. It has a small head salad at the top, and a beautiful image underneath with Hugo hanging from the arms of a clock as snow falls around him.
More movie posters should be that majestic.
As one of the "guilty perpetrators" (I've been designing key art for over 30 years), I can say there is one thing that "destroyed" the "art" of the movie poster... the computer.
Before the advent of the computer in the mid-90s, we started out with a completely blank canvas... anything goes... you could even tie and airplane in a knot... but after computers (and I'm even talking about the brief pre-personal computer era in the mid-80s, where "computer" work was done by specialized shops) designers who were not particularly "artistic" began to depend heavily, and/or completely, on production photography which, naturally, led to a plethora of "big heads."
Once designers began to learn how to use computers and their various filters and FX, another divergence occurred within the design community and persists today... those who had the artistic/illustrative skills, could still use photography to utilize their vision (the availability of stock photography expanded this exponentially), think the Batman poster with the destroyed buildings creating the bat symbol, that requires a lot of personal illustrative talent on the part of the designer... and lesser "artistic" designers who simply utilize the photography as they find it, dress it up with filters, flares and fades and churn out stuff like the Bourne Identity poster.
But what you're about so see is the re-emergence of "artistic" poster design. With AI, even the least artistic designer with an idea will soon be able to see their conceptual vision realized, even if it far exceeds their personal talent. Conversely, what we also might see, is the decline of actual designers and artists contributing to the process and more interference by "suits" who think of themselves as "creative" -- and trust me, they've had their fingers in the pie all along, contributing mightily to the mediocrity of the poster art -- who will think nothing of giving AI a few commands and then shilling their own crap to the "upper suits" of the marketing department.
We're on the cusp of a brave new world... not sure which way it's going to work out for the art of movie posters. *sigh*
Fun fact; John Carpenter hated the poster for The Thing. Because he thought it made his movie look like a slasher movie.
Agree. I can not stand the modern posters. They just can't help themselves, they have to have the person's face rather than an artistic quality.
While Drew Struzen is awesome, I think John Alvin is pretty cool as well, his Disney renaissance posters are simple yet bold.
This whole episode was like that old man shakes fist at cloud meme from The Simpsons.
My favorite "recent" movie poster is from "It Follows", the one with the rear-view window. Also the Scream VI poster at 05:00 looks great 🔥
"Even when executed well, they feel soulless." - I usually agree with just about everything Nerdstalgic talks about but sometimes I hear something and I'm like ".......Um, no not at all????" But that's how opinions be, of course, I'm not trying to say anyone's wrong.
On the subject of modern movie posters I usually don't even SEE the posters for movies I see talked about a ton..... unless the poster becomes used often in memes (you know.) or if I'm following it closely like No Way Home. I forget films even *have* posters, and I figure it's because they've been so far surpassed in efficiency by other forms of telling people a thing exists.
Don't forget John Alvin, another of the great poster artists whose work spanned the 1970s-2000s
Because posters don't carry the same promotional weight that they once did, modern movie posters just seem like an afterthought from the studios, with many of them being lackluster Photoshop. I think Paul Shipper does a good job of continuing the Struzan style into the modern era. He has done some great stuff. The studios should probably start using some of his work as their primary promotional poster; it would certainly stand out in the era of "head salad."
What killed the movie poster is Adobe Photoshop and programs like it. Plus movies don't have the same cultural impact as they used to. Everybody can still recall scenes from Jawa or Back To The Future. Does anything from most modern movies linger like that? Not even close.
The posters sure don't, but there's plenty of great films that still linger in our mind. The Raimi Spidey trilogy, The Mummy, Avatar (granted for its graphics), the early MCU. Time hasn't made a decision whether the whole will linger or not. Rise of the Silver Surfer's Silver Surfer scenes, every MI film except 2. The list can go on. I don't think 10 years or earlier is enough to make a judgement call.
The reason that "newer" movies haven't made as big of a cultural impact yet is because, well, they're newer, and haven't had a chance to seep into the cultural landscape like the older movies have.
Teaser, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Digital posters are 9/10 times better than the actual posters.
The Thing's poster goes hard
To some degree, the modern cinema is advertised on UA-cam, Instagram, TikTok and all the major social media platforms, while a poster is still one of the advertisement methods, it isn't the key seller to the audience, so productions have started putting less and less effort into the beauty of it.
These days, we are more drawn towards a movie on the basis of its trailers and teasers.
So, it is all about time.
Great video - I'm new to your channel. I live over a theater, and just yesterday the new "Indiana Jones" poster caught my attention because it's just so lifeless and visually muddy. Loved your analysis - I grew up on '70s Bob Peak, and heard of Saul Bass, but wasn't familiar with Drew Struzan at all. Thanks for the introduction!
Dial of Destiny poster is amazing, it is similar to Raiders 's one
A lot of Struzan's posters were "floating head" posters
I hoped to see Everything Everywhere All At Once's alternative poster. The circular one.
That James Jean poster is phenomenal, as is the movie.
Better Call Saul had some nice posters honestly
that truman show poster "soulless" this man cannot be serious lmao
Once artists are replaced by corporations, we're sunk.
Even if Struzan's work is more artistic, it is still mostly head salad. Bass and his ilk were so much more inventive. And European posters for American films are some of the best ever.
In the future, they probably won't even use human graphic designers to make them. They'll just be able to type an AI prompt "create a movie poster in the style of Drew Struzan for a movie with (names of actors) for a movie about (topic)" and get dozens made in an instant.
sadly youre right
Masterpiece as usual. Keep them coming
First thing that comes to mind, is Detective Pikachu. The picture of a neon city, and the giant lightning bolt shadow breaking up the neon reflections on the rain soaked road, with Pikachu in the background. It caught my attention when I first saw it, and I now have the poster hanging in my room.
The simple dune poster with a figure on a massive sand dune is one of the best posters I’ve ever seen… and they didn’t use it. All the marketing was done with the floating heads in space poster rather than that masterpiece. It conveyed the cinematography, the tone and the story of the movie almost perfectly and yet you had to Google dune poster to find it.
yeah all the good posters are subjected to only be teasers. i think it has to do with some stupid contract that wants them to put the main actors on them
I'd wanna watch Dune but that floating heads poster just scream generic boring big budjet movie so I just skip it
It should also be noted, the film trailer has overtaken the film poster as the primary marketing tool at studios’ disposal, especially after the rise of UA-cam. I remember walking through the halls of the multiplex choosing which movies I wanted to see based off of posters or standees, now it’s trailers and Rotten Tomatoes scores.