The 50 Best Posters Of 2013

Which of 2013’s posters will pass the test of time? It’s hard to tell from this vantage point, but we like to think of these 50 promos as a good place to start. From budget-blowing blockbusters to the tiniest indie beauties, there are all sorts here, with variety very much to the fore. Take a look through the list and post your additional picks in the comment box below…

ALL IS LOST

It’s hard to pick a favourite from the posters produced for J. C. Chandor’s follow-up to Margin Call. There’s the Robert Redford with a sail number, or the Robert Redford kneeling on the bow of a boat design – we’re not being glib here, they’re all excellent – but this one wins out, if only for the glorious rain effect and foreboding grey clouds. For blue clouds, check out the Spanish language version (where the film’s called ‘Cuando Todo Está Perdido’).

ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND CONTINUES

Ron Burgundy is proud of saying that his mission on this Earth is to “have salon-quality hair and read the news”. But what of his salon-quality moustache? Doesn’t that deserve a little love? Yes it does, and this teaser is there to spread that love, all without even stating the title. Incidentally, to see a GIGANTIC Buddha, covered in hair, check out this Attack Of The 50ft Baxter poster here.

BLACKFISH

Killer Whales aren’t technically whales, but they are killers. Or they can be, if you lock them in an underwater garage with other underfed killer whales by night and make them perform menial tricks in a swimming pool in the day. Encapsulating the danger of a ‘Blackfish’ – as they are sometimes called – this monochrome masterpiece is part Rorschach test, part warning.

PS Check out the hidden dorsal fin in the bottom of the ‘K’...

THE BLING RING

Spring Breakers tried a similar items-laid-out-on-a-white-background trick in one of their posters, only it had more giant lollipops, pink balaclavas and guns. Team Bling Ring, meanwhile, keep it simple, with just six sunglasses to communicate a surprising amount the movie and its characters.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR

The time and effort that must have gone into making the blue hair here is mind-boggling. Shame the typography is so strong, as it detracts a little from subtler work in the drawing department, but the whole still works well.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Naysayers have (nay)said that this Cap’ 2 one-sheet is just a simple poster equation. Take one Iron Man 3, add some World War Z and hey presto! It’s Captain America: The Amalgamated Poster. This, though funny, isn’t quite fair. What makes this teaser work is the hidden letter visible if you squint hard enough – it’s an ‘A’, see – and the way it’s a male superhero character with his back turned. Can’t wait for the Hulk version...

CARRIE

Yes, it’s another ‘Words Over Faces’ poster to add to our increasingly long list, but this one has a few things to set it apart. First off, there’s the bucket o’ blood creeping down Chloe Grace Moretz’s mug; then it gets bonus points for not actually mentioning the film’s title while at the same time reassuring passers-by that they’ll know it anyway. For its cojones alone, this poster deserves recognition.

DESPICABLE ME 2

Ignore the ‘Honk If You Love Minions’ bus posters and the ‘Phil The French Maid’ one-sheets, because underneath the pile of fart guns and gigantic rocket launchers lies this, a little treat for anyone seriously considering putting a Despicable Me 2 poster on their wall. With the wide eyes and generous use of creative white space, you can’t help but imagine the havoc about to ensue. Our best guess involves some Super Glue, a baseball bat and a bucket of gunge.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

ENEMY

The whole city-coming-out-of-someone’s-head thing has been done before – most memorably by The Iron Lady, which saw Meryl Streep’s dome (as Maggie Thatcher) morphing into the Houses of Parliament – but this one has a massive spider monster in Jake Gyllenhaal’s hair, so it’s undeniably better.

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

A psychological horror shot in Disneyland and Disney World without the approval of Uncle Walt, this guerilla film, recorded on the sly using Handycams and cameraphones, was not officially acknowledged by Walt Disney Parks And Resorts, even after it was released. As such, director Randy Moore can just about get away with this bloody-handed Mickey take, in the process making hundreds of thousands of design nerds clap with delight at his sheer, unadulterated gumption.

FAST & FURIOUS 6 SET

FILTH

FRANCES HA

You can see the original photo this poster is based on here, on another poster. But though the designer only has a cropped-out still to play with, two added tweaks make the whole work: namely the fun typeface and the pink/black/cream palette. Simple, silly and very successful at getting the movie’s tone across, it’s a fine example of good colour use on a poster for a monchrome film.

GODZILLA TEASERS

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Stateliness, thy name is the poster for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. A blend of painted background and photo trickery, it’s all perfectly complemented by the great use of colours in the cast’s credits. And one thing’s for sure: you’ll know it’s a Wes Anderson movie from a few hundred miles away. You’ll need Moonrise Kingdom binoculars, mind you.

GRAVITY

There’s a cracking Mondo poster for Gravity, but this is the stand-out of its studio campaign. Gorgeous in its simplicity, scary in a way it’s hard to quantify, you can almost hear the trailer’s ear-shattering music while you’re standing at the bus stop.

THE GREAT GATSBY CHARACTER SET

THE HANGOVER PART III

The other posters for the third Hangover movie were quite dreadful, all big faces and strange out-of-context stills. But this one is a lot of fun, neatly parodying two famous Deathly Hallow posters with Las Vegas burning down in the background instead of Hogwarts. Presumably, it’s a joke about how the finale is darker and more dangerous the others, but really... what does it matter?

HAWAIIAN: THE LEGEND OF EDDIE AIKAU

This ESPN surfing documentary won’t appear on many top tens this year, not because of its quality, but because not enough people have seen it. If you’re a poster buff you’ll appreciate its one-sheet, not least due to this cracking piece of photography.

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

If you’re going to call your movie “The Desolation Of Smaug”, you’d better show a little desolation on your poster. By the way, desolation is defined as “a state of complete emptiness or destruction”, which is what you’ll get if you let a massive, angry, greedy dragon make a nest in your mountain kingdom.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

Like an old, faded Kodachrome photo left out in the sun, this series of Catching Fire posters look like they may well catch fire if someone were to hover a magnifying glass over them. Mythical, magical, hopeful, wistful, beautiful and altogether… different, it’s a great treatment and the standout of a very strong campaign. See also: this excellent IMAX one-sheet.

IN FEAR

Like VHS 2, In Fear channeled your busted shredder to produce this red-and-black-and-scary-all-over number. Now when you look at a beautiful winter sunset when you’re walking through the woods, you’ll only think of big red serrated knives. Hooray?

IRON MAN 3

JOHN DIES AT THE END

The film’s title is a spoiler, the film’s poster has that title on it (which is a spoiler) and to cap it all off, they acknowledge it’s a spoiler by saying, “(Spoiler Alert)”. In case you were wondering, this is a truly weird movie, and as such, its take on the items-from-the-film-spelling-out-its-name motif – as seen with ParaNorman last year – features such disturbing things as a human heart, a snake-slug and several narc-friendly needles.

THE LAST EXORCISM PART II

Don’t question the strangeness of its title – There’s another Last Exorcism? Huh? – just bow down before this contortionist-centric sequel one-sheet. Some fortunate/unfortunate shadowing there, and no mistake.

MALEFICENT

Giving Tom Hiddleston a run for his money in the horned headgear department, Angelina Jolie stops you in your tracks with her moon-white face, glowing green eyes and slightly biker-chic hat. Magnificent.

MAN OF STEEL

It’s difficult to represent a sonic boom on a poster. All right, you use the blur tool on Photoshop, but this is some of the best use of the blur tool on Photoshop yet seen on a movie poster. Then there’s the lens flare, which somehow works, and the sheer simplicity of it. It’s hard not to hear Hans Zimmer’s ‘Flight’ theme when you look at it…

MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

Nelson Mandela’s full name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Rolihlahla means “one who shakes branches”, which is generally translated as – you guessed it – “troublemaker”. It’s such an impactful poster you almost don’t clock that Idris Elba, brilliant actor though he is, doesn’t look a lot like the late, great leader.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

From the director of The Avengers and the producer of The Cabin In The Woods comes the Shakespeare adaptation to end all Shakespeare adaptations: Much Ado About Nothing. Its beauty is in its simplicity, but putting Whedon’s name next to Shakespeare’s like that…? That’s brave.

NEBRASKA

Move over Eraserhead, a new wild-haired weirdo is in town, and his name is Woody Grant. And yes, the poster is in black and white because the film is in black and white. Alexander Payne is clever like that.

NOW YOU SEE ME

Now You See Me was the little magic movie that could (sorry Burt Wonderstone), earning $351 million worldwide and a likely sequel. This was all down to its great lead poster, which you can see here. Or it might have something to do with the cast, and the director, and the script, and the everything else, but the visual trickery here perfectly complemented the whole piece. One thing's for sure: whoever follows it up on the sequel will really have to pull a rabbit from their hat.

NYMPHOMANIAC POSTER SET

OLDBOY

No, it’s not the number of people who went to see the film, it’s the number of years Josh Brolin’s ad man was locked in a hotel room-cum-prison.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES

The film divided us, but the poster united us. The echoes of “GET THIS ON MY WALL” still echo around the office, and, if you listen carefully, much of the internet.

PACIFIC RIM

Robots and robots and helicopters and robots and broken bridges and monsters and helicopters and robots and monsters and title. Now *that’s *how you make a movie poster. See also, The Hobbit: The Desolation’s Of Smaug, which tried a similar trick, but forgot to include the monsters and robots and helicopters.

PARKLAND

If this poster is making you feel sad, then it’s done its job. Sombre, bleak, simple, it’s almost a poster that doesn’t want you to see the film, and for that reason alone it’s worthy of note.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

We’re suckers for this kind of stylised sparseness, so after seeing this poster there was even more jubilation when the steelbook chose this as its design too – though it is much clearer and cleaner there, which is a shame. Still, if you ride like…

RIDDICK TEASER POSTERS

SAVING MR. BANKS

Saving Mr. Banks’ poster is not the first to do the shadow trick. Previously, we’ve seen The Phantom Menace, The Informant andWhat About Bob? do similar things, but this one sets itself apart because of the one-two team of a rodent called Mickey Mouse and some nanny called Mary Poppins.

THE SECRET OF WALTER MITTY LOCATION POSTERS

SPRING BREAKERS

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS

Alluded to earlier, this, like Iron Man 3, offers a key piece of the film franchise’s iconography hurtling to earth with smoke trailing behind it. It certainly makes you think twice about the film – and three more times about the film’s title – and if that was its job, which it was, it nailed it. Plus, it gave us this clever piece of Photoshop fun, and you can’t ignore that.

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

TRANCE

God bless whoever came up with the idea of having James ‘Nice Guy’ McAvoy’s screaming face distorted by multicoloured satellite interference and what looks like the sea.

VHS 2

When was the last time you saw VHS tape? Too long ago. Allow this shredded skull to refresh your memory, and make you feel slightly uncomfortable at the same time.

WORLD WAR Z

It’s the weirdest thing: if you squint, the regular World War Z poster – the one with Brad Pitt leaning out of a helicopter – looks like this black and white (and red) one. This poster wins out, however, as it actually shows zombies. More than that, it makes you wonder what the word for Zombie Jenga is. Jengbie? Zenga? The truth is out there.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

YOU'RE NEXT

THE KINGS OF SUMMER

The Kings Of Summer is a little indie film that deserved more love on its release. Chock-full of charm, memorable characters and songs that’ll stick in your head for days, it impressed Jurassic Park 4’s production team enough to cast its star, Nick Robinson, in the upcoming dino fourquel. The regular posters concentrated on the movie’s three young leads leaping into a lake, but some limited-edition prints took a different tack. This one is perhaps the best of the lot, but if you’re intrigued, be sure to check out this 16-bit number, and this road-snake concept (as weird as that sounds).