Why are movie posters so generic and boring nowadays?

[Rambaldi47]

I used to love collecting movie posters. Now they're so boring, I don't see the point. I think my favorite is the original for The Empire Strikes Back. Even the prequels had ok posters, but the dvd/blu-rays... not so much. I don't get why they can't use theatrical poster art for dvd/blu-ray. Is it a legal thing? I would LOVE to have Disney release their animated films with its theatrical poster as the cover. But instead we get inferior art.

[Bill Clay]

I think the last really good poster I took notice of was for "The American". Luckily it was also used for the blu ray art. But I'm a sucker for that vintage look.

As for that Journey 2 poster, while it does looks pretty awful and cheesy, it is a pretty good representation of what the movie is. Just three people running away from lizards on an island and stuff coming right at you. So, it gets points for that at least.

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by Falaskan

Maybe you're just depressed and are making too big a deal out of something as trivial as movie posters, leading you to glean less overall enjoyment from a remenicient movie theater experience. seriously.

No, that's not it. I'll still go see a movie regardless of a movie poster. I'm just talking about movie posters that aren't as nice and creative as they were from the 1900s till the 1980s.

[Mike53421]

40 Year Old Virgin
Knocked Up

And... some others (I think with Apatow links) all seem to feature something very generic. There's an Ed Helms one too that seems to also follow the formula, but I think with the ADD generation we're in they just expect people to associate the movie with "Ohhh haaaay it's that guy from the Office, funny!".

[Battra92]

I think the Polish movie poster for Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is the greatest movie poster of all time.



In all seriousness, I do thing Godzilla vs The Thing (Mothra) was a real classic

[BohemianGraham]

These are all awesome. I love Saul Bass.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

These are all awesome. I love Saul Bass.

Yeah, but it just wouldn't work for other movies:

[Show spoiler]

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass - YouTube

[Show spoiler]

Titanic vs Saul Bass - YouTube

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Yeah, but it just wouldn't work for other movies:

[Show spoiler]
Star Wars vs. Saul Bass - YouTube

[Show spoiler]Titanic vs Saul Bass - YouTube

What are you talking about? that Titanic intro is 100x more awesome than Titanic itself!

Freaking hate that moviem as it's so overrated. The girls at school thought I was a lesbian (13 year old girls are evil! I was in grade 8 when it came out) because I didn't lurve it or Leo. I was more into Jude Law and Ewan MacGreggor.

[nefilim]

why ? because general audience is happy with em ! just as long there is pretty face or man with a big gun or explosion(s) - its all good. no demand for thinking mans posters. and that is sad.

[Caesar Will Rise]

I don't know if anyone remembers the posters that TCM did back in 2009 for their Summer of Movies, but I've always liked this poster for To Catch a Thief.



I really like this one.

[Aquel]

Originally Posted by victim

All three cast members are also looking in three different directions. What exactly are they looking at?

The three headed dinosaur probably

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

One of the reasons why today's posters are generic and boring is because the demand is so high, there are too many movies coming out, and most of all the developers can't keep up with the pace so they're required to make copies.

[thedarkangel1975]

Personally I think they are going with less is better. Some posters have too much, some of too little. The ones the original poster stated have creativity all look like a copy of the Star Wars posters to me.

[toddly6666]

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/02/h...f-the-year.php

[feeter]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Fanatic

One of the reasons why today's posters are generic and boring is because the demand is so high, there are too many movies coming out, and most of all the developers can't keep up with the pace so they're required to make copies.

From the time production to the start of the promotion studios have time to create a nice poster... they just save money... a good poster by an artist costs money... i guess they get someone in the promotion dept. to do several to save money

Originally Posted by EricJ

One of the contract perks to being the "bigger" star of the movie was getting a bigger percentage of the profits. But of course, since movies don't make profits anymore, the only perk is whether you're one of the actors "lead" enough to get your face on the poster, and remind people that you're in the movie.
And since the professional side of acting is to remind the public and other producers that you WERE in the movie, to be a character minor enough, or actor un-drawable enough, not to be featured on the poster, is a major slant no actor wants to be subjected to....At least as long as he can negotiate his contract
(That's also why, if you see two actors on a romantic comedy poster, the names are "switched" over the heads--That way, there's no conclusive argument about who was billed "first". Billling order is an actor's nitpick that dates back to the days of vaudeville.)


:

[HelmutNewton]

This one has got my vote for the worst Blu-ray cover in recent memory. It looks like it was whipped up by an unpaid studio intern in 5 minutes.

[toddly6666]

[Seymour]

Originally Posted by Mike53421

40 Year Old Virgin
Knocked Up

And... some others (I think with Apatow links) all seem to feature something very generic. There's an Ed Helms one too that seems to also follow the formula, but I think with the ADD generation we're in they just expect people to associate the movie with "Ohhh haaaay it's that guy from the Office, funny!".

Personally, I've always like this poster. It's simple, but extremely catchy:

[remake]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

Terrible.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by victim

Terrible.

I thought that was a poster for a Tyler Perry movie at first. Then realized it was worse, it was a Eddie Murphy movie.