When creating a promotional campaign for a movie, the main goal is to attract the majority of the audience. To have a good trailer is as important as to have a poster that captivates at first glance and condenses into a single image the essence, tone, and content of the production that is being advertised – something not simple at all. The posters’ creators should be so skillful that they catch the audience’s attention in a heartbeat. The title, plot, and design must be merged in a creative way and become one. We suggest you grab a coffee, sit in the most comfortable place and enjoy these 10 sophisticated creative movie posters! Don’t forget to follow Marketing Birds to avoid missing out on similar shares. IG: @marketingbirds
-
1 Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, 2004
A Series of Unfortunate Events, directed by Brad Silberling, is a 2004 American gothic black comedy movie. The plot is based on Lemony Snicket's novel A Series of Unfortunate Events. After being left all alone, 3 siblings go to live in their distant relative, Count Olaf, played by Jim Carry. The poster shows a hand creating the shadow of Olaf who is laughing devilishly. Inside this figure, there are the 3 siblings standing in a lost cloudy place.
-
2 The Broken, 2008
Sean Ellis wrote and directed The Broken, a French-British horror film released in 2008. Gina McVey, a radiologist, solves a mystery involving a broken mirror after seeing herself driving down the street. In this poster, there is the half face of Gina and the other half looks like a broken mirror. The image and the title of this movie fit perfectly together.
-
3 Cold Souls, 2009
Cold Souls is a comedy-drama movie directed and written by Sophie Barthes in 2009. This movie is about Gimatti who stars as a fictional version of himself, a nervous, overstressed artist who employs a firm to deep freeze his soul. In this poster, we can see Gimatti split into small pieces of himself. However, the look in his eyes shows confusion, coldness, and constantly looking for an answer.
-
4 Black Swan, 2010
Black Swan is a psychological horror film directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2010. The plot is based on Swan Lake ballet by the New York City Ballet company. There are 2 main characters, the innocent and fragile White Swan played by Natalie Portman and the sensual and dark Black Swan played by Mila Kunis. They were enemies and rivals. In this poster, we can see a black swan figure which also represents a dark night with a sky full of shining stars. This figure holds inside a ballerina with a white silhouette peacefully dancing.
-
5 The Ides Of March, 2011
George Clooney directed The Ides of March, a 2011 American political thriller film based on a script written by Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon. This movie is about the election of the new president and a young idealist who gets stuck in the dirty ways of politics. The poster shows the main character, Stephen Meyers, played by Ryan Gosling. Half of his face is covered by another man's face in a Presidential magazine where the question “Is This Man Our Next President?” is asked.
-
6 Her, 2013
Written, directed, and produced by Spike Jonze, Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama movie. Its plot is about a man named Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who creates a relationship with Samantha, played by Scarlett Johansson. But this is not a usual relationship. Samantha is a female-voiced artificially intelligent robotic assistant. In this poster, there is the ear of Theodore in which we can see a woman’s lips shape seducing him with her voice.
-
7 The Lobster, 2015
The Lobster is a surreal black comedy dystopian movie directed by Yorgos Lanthimos released in 2015. In this movie, single people receive 45 days to find romantic partners otherwise they will be turned into animals. The poster shows a woman who gives the impression like she is hugging another person, but the person is not physically there, it is just an outline.
-
8 Now You See Me 2, 2016
Jon M. Chu directed Now You See Me 2, a 2016 American heist thriller film. The fugitive Four Horsemen are waiting for directions from the Eye, the underground society of magicians, eighteen months after eluding the FBI. In this poster, there are 9 characters in a labyrinth made from playing cards. The playing cards are used throughout the movie for tricky purposes.
-
9 Baby Driver, 2017
Edgar Wright wrote and directed the 2017 adventure film Baby Driver. It stars Ansel Elgort as a robber who is looking for a way out of a life of crime with his girlfriend. The movie poster shows the possessions of the main actor; A pair of sunglasses, one of the sides is broken (because of the adventurous lifestyle); Earphones which are linked with a white car creating a road.
-
10 Proud Mary, 2018
Proud Mary is an American action thriller film released in 2018 and directed by Babak Najafi. Mary (Taraji P. Henson) is a hitwoman who works for a Boston-based organized crime family. Her life changes when she kills her target, Marcus Miller. In this poster, we see Mary and instead of her hair, she is holding the versions of herself during her adventure and the other protagonists.
As we already saw, a movie poster simply created can also be extremely creative. Sometimes, there is no need for strong colors or overloaded visuals, but curated details and hidden attractive messages. The function of the posters is to entice the viewer to trust the quality of the film based on one single image. This is certainly a functional expedient at the marketing level (capable of reassuring the public in some way). We strongly believe the posters shown represent these functions perfectly.
