On December 28, 1895, the French Lumiere brothers screened short films such as "The Train Arrives at a Station" to 35 viewers in a restaurant in Paris. At that time, the poster titled "Lumiere Movies" may have been the world's first movie poster.
Early movie posters were purely for promotional purposes, just like most promotional posters in stores, which were manually drawn, also known as hand drawn movie posters. Its authentic works are relatively rare. The early famous Hollywood films "Gone with the Wind", "Breakfast of Tiffany", and "Casablanca" were all hand-painted posters, with exquisite and detailed visuals that still have high artistic value.
With the popularization of movies and the advancement of movie poster production technology, movie posters themselves have become a type of artwork with appreciation and collection value due to their exquisite visuals, unique expressive techniques, and rich cultural connotations. However, foreign poster collectors generally only collect original movie posters, and of course, their front and previous editions are highly favored due to their scarce quantity and huge potential for appreciation.
Movie posters and other film derivative products. Functionally, it can be divided into two categories: the first category is for advertising and promotion purposes, and its products are often labeled with the words "For Promotion", mainly used for advertising in film companies, cinema posters, and giveaways for audiences. The first type of product cannot be used for sale. The second category is available for sale. Movie posters, postcards, Keychain, souvenir cards, Mug, T-shirts, etc. that you see in Shanghai are all derivatives of movies. Movies and their derivatives have long become a culture that has influenced generations and entered the lives of millions of people.
Nowadays, most movie posters have exquisite visuals, and even for the same movie, versions from different countries may have different expressive techniques and may highlight different themes. A regular movie poster only has one or two pages, while a best-selling blockbuster may have dozens of pages. The poster for the "TiTanic" movie should have the most pages.