The Original Movie Posters Blog - Art of the Movies

Have you noticed the movie posters at your local cinema?

They radiate light, just like the movie screen.

Ever wonder how it's done? 

It's the magic of a cinema light box...

How many times did you visit the cinema in 2019? We averaged a couple of times a month. Given what we do, I imagine that's not a surprise.

What about the average cinema goer? How has that changed over the past few years? 

We decided to do a little research with the help of the excellent UK Cinema Association. What we found was a surprising and fascinating story...

2019 has been a phenomenal year for the movie lover. Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Joker and Frozen II led the way, with a whole host of fantastic films filling the screens around them.

With the return of James Bond, Doctor Dolittle and Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, 2020 looks set to be another great one.

So, here are our pick of the trailers for the first half of 2020...

We would like to thank you all for helping to make 2019 such a fantastic year. We hope that you all have an amazing 2020.

Our 2019 Christmas cards featured some of our favourite quotes from the best Christmas movies.

Didn't recognise yours? No problem. You can find them all below. 

Together with the many beautiful posters for local releases, Japanese movie posters often provide fantastic unique artwork for western films too. For the collector looking out for the unusual, they are must see posters. 

So, this week, we head east to size up the Chirashi, the Nakazuri and the Tatekan!

It is here at last! The first official trailer for Bond 25 - "No Time To Die".

Now widely believed to be Daniel Craig's final outing as 007, the trailer shows Bond retired, a relic in a fast moving modern world, but maybe, just maybe, he could be the one to save us...

Watch the trailer here...

Who are we to tell you what films to watch when? You’re a free spirit, able to make your own decisions and watch whatever you want, whenever you want. But, in the days of cinematic universes, re-boots, sequels, prequels, spin-offs and TV tie-ins, it can be bewildering to work out how things actually fit together.

So, in our “In the Order You Should Watch Them…” series of blog posts, we like to paint a simple picture and provide a bit of background. The rest, well, that’s up to you. Perhaps you’ll watch them backwards, maybe that’s just how you roll…

This week, in anticipation of the final part of the Skywalker Saga, it is Star Wars...

As our favourite movie of the year becomes the first ‘R’ rated film to take $1B at the box office, rumours abound of a possible sequel.

The movie posters for the film have been in high demand and the studio, agencies and distributors have excelled with some stunning images, using both art-house film-stills and illustration from some fantastic contemporary artists.

In this week’s blog post, we pull together the ones we have found, and those that still elude us…

Following a couple of decades where the photographic movie poster has reigned unchallenged, the illustrated movie poster is finally on the march.

Movie studios and agencies have taken note of the Alternative Movie Poster movement and some familiar names from that world are now producing key art for blockbuster movies.

In this new blog series however, we’ll be focusing on the unofficial posters, picking out some of our favourites and highlighting the amazing illustrators behind them.

First up, two posters each from Paul Mann, Tony Stella and friend of the blog, Rich Davies…

For many of us, the only examples of movie publicity that we come across are the movie posters that we know and love, but they are only one part of the huge marketing campaign that accompanied a film.

Dating back to the 1910s studios have produced ‘press books’ to encourage a cinema manager to push their film harder than any other.

To bring that to life, we take a good look at a film from 1969 and its press book, Guy Hamilton’s all-star World War II thriller “Battle of Britain”...

How many of us have sat staring at a movie poster wishing that we could be part of the movie? 

We've been doing just that watching "The Dark Crystal : Age of Resistance" on Netflix and before it premiered, we had our chance to star, if only for a few seconds in a small clip... 

In the 2014 book “The Art of Robert E. McGinnis”, the artist states “Painting is addictive. There is never enough time, never enough satisfaction … Nevertheless, painting is a good friend and I’m fortunate to be blissfully under its spell.”

That probably explains why, in a career now well into its eighth decade, one of the most successful commercial illustrators of the twentieth century is still producing stunning works of art.

In this blog post we pull together about six month’s research to try and show all of the movie posters of this phenomenal artist and illustrator...