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Check This Out: Hollywood's Most Common Trends in Movie Posters

by Ethan Anderton
November 8, 2011
Source: Movies.com

If the revelation that Hollywood consistently uses the contrast of orange and blue color palettes on dozens of movie posters ruined your enjoyment of seeing stylish one sheets in theaters everywhere, then you may want to stop reading right now. A French blogger by the name of Christophe Courtois (via Movies.com) has put together a collection of fourteen popular design trends in movie posters. While some you've seen already like floating heads, there are some other interesting observations like the predominance of blue in both action films and movies about animals and nature as well. See the various movie poster trends below!

Here are the fourteen movie poster trends via Movies.com (click for larger images):

There are some TV posters thrown in there every now and then, but we'll let that slide. Notice there's now an orange and black trend to go with the aforementioned contrast of blue and orange on movie posters. It's interesting to see the predominance of close-ups on faces with text superimposed on top. Out of all these, I think the most diverse of the trends seems to be the close-up faces created using some sort of mosaic pattern as with The Truman Show, Lord of War and The Next Three Days.

Meanwhile some of the worst posters are featured with couples being placed back-to-back or simply laying in bed together, and there aren't too many good movies with a poster featuring the spread legs in the foreground either. And obviously, Neo from The Matrix isn't the only person interested in a woman wearing a red dress. As for that last batch which tries to point out copycat posters to "trick" viewers, some of them like The Good German and Australia are merely respectful homages intended to evoke nostalgia and a certain style from the past that is rarely seen in today's Photoshop heavily advertising world.

Discussion: Do these poster design trends have anything to do with a film's success?

Filed under Discuss, Feat, Posters

From around the web:

Alex

woww that thing is great, thumbs up to guys who did this !!
http://www.mynameisjay.com/ Tendonin

This is great. I was expecting to see some orange/blue themed posters too.
- Jericho
  
  i did too...ill just shrug it off as they ran out of room.....
- http://www.firstshowing.net/ Ethan Anderton
  
  Well that's the one that most people know about, and this guy wanted to highlight some of the other lesser publicized trends I guess. But that's why we mention the orange/blue themes posters right off the bat too.
Jericho

i noticed that Nicholas Cage likes fire....
- The_Kid89
  
  Matthew McCahougney likes leaning on people.
  - Jules
    
    LOL!!
Blue Silver

Interesting compilation! Sadly, it show's Hollywood's lack of originality!
http://www.dearfilm.net Brian J. Roan

Ok, seriously, no montage of posters with dirt/sparks/debris in the foreground? Come on, people!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Liran-Ravich/1019619555 Liran Ravich

in the 2nd pic, whats the poster between unforgiven and cowboys and aliens?
- Liverhead28
  
  Arthur and the Invisibles 2. I have kids.
The_Kid89

Some og these shouldn't be mixed in with the others but then alot of them are very similair that it makes me sick.
- Jules
  
  Who cares? They're movie posters, not works of art. If you think there is anything left of originality, take a look of fashion......all recycled versions of the past.
  - Meki22
    
    Exactly. Trends exist everywhere. The same can be applied to magazine covers. Many of them are similar. Later on the trend is going to change again then theyl have something new to follow. On a side note, a lot of artists and designers take inspiration from others which isnt necessarily a bad thing.
Brandon

Academia is more exciting then you Hollywood.
- Jules
  
  PUH-LEASE!
happy camper

You can add Inception to that 6th set of posters.
Armeetapus16

From top to bottom: The Beach The Back Back to Back The Bed The Eye The Runner Between the Legs Face Time Lady in Red Tag Line Orange and White Blue The Copies
David Banner

The Illuminati ones creep me out...
David Banner

Damn, I hit enter before posting my breakdown(yeah, bored at work): 4 beach22 back2 back to back0 bed25 eye2 leaning14 the runner10 legs14 face time42+lady in red12 tag line11 orange and white2 blue11 the copies
David Banner

^----that didnt go as planned
http://twitter.com/darktaxidermist Davide Coppola

I love the ones with a close up of a face and then all text written all over it. That's kinda my favorite type of posters out of these.
lame

This is really lame. If they all were good posters, maybe but you can see so many half-rate ones in there that are attempting to replicate the better ones. Obviously nature movies are blue when they are about water, undersea life, whales etc. and action movies use fire which is orange and yellow. Shitty movies use the figure of a woman, I mean so many of those movies there are meant to suck so who cares? I don't think this was as good as the orange blue thing.
Sarah

I think it is worth pointing out that many of these are either posters for foreign films or non-domestic posters for Hollywood films - I am seeing a lot of French posters, for example. The range of influence is quite interesting.
- Daniel
  
  The man who created this is a French blogger... Read the introductions first, they give you a little background.
Carlos Nicolini

At http://cabezasdepescado.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/una-portada-y-un-afiche/, see how the poster for "The Next Three Days" resembles a Detective Comics cover.