When it comes to movie posters, 2024 has been a fruitful year. We’ve seen some incredible designs over the last twelve months, many of which have put paid to the argument that all movie posters look the same these days.
Indeed, the ‘floating head’ design of superhero and sci-fi flicks is starting to look rather passé, particularly as smaller films are giving us increasingly artistic offerings. But of course, not all poster designs are made equal, and while some have been worthy of our best movie posters roundup, not every design has been, er, wicked. Here’s our pick of the good, the bad and the ugly of 2024.
The good…
01. Days of Heaven
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)
This one might be a re-release, but it’s one of the most beautiful posters of the year – which is arguably befitting what some have called the most beautiful film ever made. The, a sun-kissed retro delight is perfect for the 4K restoration of Terrence Malik’s 1978 film.
02. Challengers
(Image credit: MGM)
The striking poster for Challengers, the Zendaya-helmed tennis film, has an extravagantly maximalist 80s vibe. Viewers were quick to point out the resemblance to several posters from that era, such as Risky Business.
03. The First Omen
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
The horror genre has always produced some of the most artistic movie posters around, and that trend continued in 2024. With a distinctly ’70s aesthetic, the stunning poster for The First Omen classily recalls the classic The Exorcist posters with clean lines and grainy monochrome photography.
The bad…
Hit Man
From a distance, the poster for Netflix’s Hit Man looks perfectly serviceable. It communicates the premise of the film, starring Glen Powell as a strait-laced professor who discovers his hidden talent as a master of disguise. But here, the devil is in the details.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Zoom in a little on the edges and the type, and you’ll see the lines aren’t perfectly straight. It appears there may have been a last minute decision to change the dimensions of the image. Ouch. Our Photoshop tutorials could have helped avoid such an oversight – just sayin’.
The Ugly
Wicked
(Image credit: Dewynters PLC/Universal Pictures)
Ah, Wicked. Rarely do we see a movie poster cause so much controversy that even the stars get involved. But the drama around the Wicked poster became so overblown this year that it threatened to overshadow the movie.
There are few musical theatre posters more iconic than the original 2008 West End design for Wicked. The famous ‘whisper’ design is instantly recognisable, and many were wondering when the 2024 movie would finally tip its pointy hat to the original. But when it finally did, fans were disappointed that Cynthio Erivo’s Elphaba wasn’t wearing lipstick, and didn’t have her eyes covered by her hat. And things got worse when Erivo herself got involved.
In response to fan-made edits of the poster that added the lipstick and covered the eyes, Erivo hit out on Instagram describing the amateur poster designs as “the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen equal to that awful AI.” She went on to say: “None of this is funny, none of this is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us” and that “To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me, and that is just deeply hurtful.” All fairly valid points, but the mere fact that she responded turned the whole thing into a bonafide ‘controversy’, drawing far, far more attention to the fan art and prompting a fair amount of mockery.
Is that… meat? (Image credit: Universal Pictures)
Oh, and talking of ugly, the theatrical poster wasn’t the only Wicked one-sheet to get people talking. The teaser poster was a bit of a shocker too, mainly because it looked like Ariana Grande was wearing a dress made of meat.
