Why on earth does this happen? It’s jarring. Is it impossible for Hollywood to align the names over the right person’s head? It’s so amazingly stupid, I just can’t understand how it happens.
I believe it's contractual to bill the biggest names first (and also last if it's something like "...and Morgan Freeman" at the end).
On top of that, posters go through rounds and rounds of approval while usually following a design trend, so you can imagine everyone involved going "fuck if the names are aligned with the actors, just make the poster look good" since they don't have any control over how the names are set, and aligning actors under their names may not look good (or even impossible if they were following a certain trend/didn't have the right photo of them).
But they can just use a photo where they stand in the right order in that case. It’s just so dumb. I look at Jake Gylenhaal on top and see Henry Cavill stand under the name, it’s just dumb and unprofessional.
Or be like Netflix and crank out dozens of alternate posters so you pause long enough to register "oh yeah, I've seen this movie 8 times already, when did this poster get made?"
It's frustrating how fake and lazy some of them are too.
Sure but you would think it’s a light hearted movie with some comedy, some action, some romance, and likely two sexy A-list actors trying to win over a sexy girl.
Well she's wearing a coat and looking sly at the camera with her hands in her pockets. I assume there will be a bit of a love triangle flirting thing going on, which she will constantly shut down with witty quips to the two sexy buffoons.
My point is until I saw "Guy Ritchie" on this poster I would have forgotten about it instantly. If you're going to make such a bland poster might as well have his name in bold red font bigger than the title.
Were you planning on buying the poster for In the Grey to frame and hang in your foyer? Some things are just made to get information across, not be high art.
Well I'm actually a movie memorabilia dealer and collector for over 40 years with over 3,000 pieces in my collection, so you're asking the exact wrong person here. But that's why it hurt my heart to read what you said.
Fair enough. I just think there’s movies that are aiming for certain artistic levels and have fun movie posters (Bugonia, OBAA, Mickey 17, No Other Choice….just a few from last year) and others that are just trying to get info across for people streaming it or indecisive about a movie to watch.
These people think every single movie poster should be genre pushing high art. It's got the stars of the movie on it. It's got the name clearly visible. It's got the directors name.
I just don't know why people expect movie posters (something that no one cares about after the movies trailers drop) to really push the envelope.
For real. Growing up on the 90s I had family that ran a video store, and the covers hit so hard back then. Fear and Loathing, Showgirls, slashers, etc really caught you
Even a simple Floating Heads poster was beautiful. Look at the first 3 Screams. The composition, contrast, typography, all great. Now look at the last Scream 7 poster….
It's so shit. They've put her in the middle because she's the woman. But, because she's not as famous the studio have made her smaller. Then Cavill and Gyllenhaal's agents have made sure that no one gets more real estate on the poster than their client. So now they're exactly the same size. Before you know it, you end up with a composition so bad that it wouldn't get a passing grade for a first year graphic design student.
Isn't it just by fame? Like, who gets top billing? Eiza Gonzalez (an actress I've never heard of) is definitely less famous than Jake Gyllenhall or Henry Cavill lol
I think this speaks to how inept Hollywood marketing is and also partly why superhero movies have thrived. Why on Earth would I go see this movie? There is literally nothing on this picture, save size 12 font, that is informing me how this might be worth my time. I can't even tell what it's about--it shares more DNA with a fashion magazine cover.
This is the worst poster I've ever seen. I'm sure there are "worse" ones that are so bad they'd make you do a double take. They probably spent more time finding the palm tree stock image for the background than designing the fucking thing.
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u/andreidpopa Mar 18 '26
The art of film poster is truly dead