10 Greatest Movie Posters Ever Made

Stunning film ads to cover your walls with...

Apr 21st 2009

10. Cloverfield (2008)

Why it's good: We’re so used to images of NYC going up in smoke that we’re not thrown off until we notice the decapitated Liberty...then the fading churn of the huge wake across the murky Hudson...wait, what the bejesus is going on here?

A rare example of a one-sheet that really stands up to – nay, demands – closer scrutiny; each time you look, you see something new. Well, for like the first four looks. That’s three more than most posters manage.

What would break it: Even the slightest glimpse of monster. Also, that tagline is precisely as clunky as it can afford to be without squandering all the buttock-clenching ambiguity of the image.

9. Jurassic Park (1993)

Why it’s good: Using a specific logo or item lifted directly from the in-film world – this one being the self-same graphic that InGen use to brand everything in their demented theme park – really helps to create that world in the mind of the audience.

As well as being much more iconic, here a logo rather than a screenshot also kept things secretive, preserving our first real dino-peek until we were sitting down, popcorn in hand.

What would break it: The merest whiff of CGI dinosaurs. And, if they imagine this finding its way onto living room walls across the nation, a bit less space dedicated to the credits wouldn’t go amiss.

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Comments

    • DravenCage

      Apr 21st 2009, 11:27

      With the Cloverfield poster, the use of "SOME THING" rather than the single word "SOMETHING" really adds to the mystery of it as well.

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    • DravenCage

      Apr 21st 2009, 11:32

      With Cloverfield, the use of "SOME THING" on the tagline rather than the single word "SOMETHING" makes a lot of difference as well.

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    • DravenCage

      Apr 21st 2009, 11:33

      Sorry for posting twice (three times?), but the original comment didn't come up, so I thought there was an issue with it and posted again.

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    • filmgeek27

      Apr 21st 2009, 13:56

      Hard Candy is my pick of the bunch but some of my faves that aren't on the list are Manhattan (it's such an iconic image), Memento, Heavy Load, Sex and the City and Breakfast At Tiffany's

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    • TheTingler

      Apr 21st 2009, 16:32

      I personally think the Dark Knight poster featuring the Joker with his back to us (holding a Joker card in one hand and a knife in the other) is a far better poster - much more subtle.

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    • MarkPowell

      Apr 22nd 2009, 12:14

      @filmgeek27 - with you on Memento, that very nearly made this list. The recursive Polaroid thing is ace. Although - erk! - Breakfast At Tiffany's, eh? Oof, you're unlikely to agree wholeheartedly with the corresponding '10 worst' feature, then...

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    • Sproutacus

      Apr 22nd 2009, 21:22

      The Dark Knight poster is awful, too much information, the bat symbol is iconic enough and having it burned into the building like that is all we need to tell us that all is not right in Gotham. Thanks DravenCage, I'd never noticed that little "Some thing" gap before and I'd spend ages analysing that poster with a mate prior to the films release trying to work out what the film was about. Good marketing apparently?!

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    • spunkbag

      Apr 23rd 2009, 0:25

      Where the hell is the truman show poster, easily the best poster from the last 20, no 30 years

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    • pimpernel

      Apr 24th 2009, 19:48

      I have a cloverfield poster without the tagline... which is far better. It's even more mysterious. Plus I personally like the Casino Royale poster.

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    • ashley.russell

      Apr 25th 2009, 19:17

      I'd say most of the posters on this list here ---> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/19/40-exquisite-independent-film-posters/ are as good as or better than the ones in this list. That's not to say these aren't good, its just there's so many good ones out there that a top ten list will never be enough to cover it. You should do a top 100 in the mag or summat.

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    • alecgoodhand

      Apr 26th 2009, 19:02

      How about the poster for The Phantom Menace where Anakin's shadow is in the shape of Darth Vader. I know the film was a disappointment but the poster gave me chills of excitement.

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    • FBMSales

      Jan 22nd 2012, 22:26

      Back to the Future? Apocalypse Now? Clockwork Orange? Donnie Darko? Pulp Fiction? Alien? Black Swan? The Exorcist?

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    • doggielover2579

      Feb 24th 2013, 2:54

      Amadeus, Crash, A Clockwork Orange, Gone with the Wind, The Exorcist, John Carpenter's The Thing, Alien, Hugo, Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather, Halloween, Airplane, Scarface, Brazil, Platoon, Fargo, Kill Bill, Walk the Line, these are just a few of the others that could've been on this list

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