This Month's Showcase

This month’s showcase – The Joy of re-release posters

Often misunderstood by newer collectors, re-release posters are not reprints or reproductions, they are genuine studio issued movie posters printed to accompany a film when it was released to the cinemas for a second, third or fourth time.

If this sounds confusing, it’s probably because you’re too young to remember the days before Blockbuster video rental stores offered you the opportunity to watch films at home. That was the 1970’s. If you’re Gen Z, you probably can’t even remember what happened before Netflix arrived, so you’ll have to trust me when I tell that we only had three TV channels in the UK back then, cinemas typically had one screen and films showed for one week only, sometimes less. It really was another world. This inability to see a film again on demand meant that the film studios were able to send their older films on tour again with very little cost – it was like free money for them as their only expense was to freshen up the advertising posters and watch the box office money flow in. These new posters are what we’re talking about this month. With the benefit of hindsight, the re-release poster designers were able to focus on elements of the film that the first release designers had missed. Elements that have since become iconic like the ‘Gone with the Wind’ pose of Rhett Butler holding Scarlet or the three minis in the Italian Job. They were given more freedom to express themselves and were able to do so in a design idiom that reflected the new audience. Conventional wisdom will tell you that first releases are more valuable than re-releases but this is not always the case and superior design will often outweigh first release status – take a look at The Hustler, Easy Rider or the Getaway.

But video rentals and the more recent ability to download almost anything to your TV screen hasn’t completely ended the era of the cinema re-release. The big film studios still use them to generate excitement for a film franchise, re-releasing an earlier film in the months prior to the sequel hitting the big screen, for instance (think of Star Wars and Avatar). And don’t forget The British Film Institute (BFI) re-releases. For decades the BFI has catered to the tastes of movie fanatics, re-releasing the best films from every decade in the venue they were originally designed to be seen in – the cinema. And their poster designs are sublime. There are a lot of collectors who focus on BFI re-releases and nothing else.

This month, we’re showcasing all sorts of re-releases. They’re all a genuine part of movie history, they look great and most (but not all) are significantly cheaper than their first release forbears. So take your blinkers off and have a look. You might be surprised.

Please note: Bear in mind that I’m always looking for collections to sell on consignment. If you are considering selling, get in touch on 07971 797386.  The returns to you are typically 50% higher than selling at auction after all the fees are taken into account (look in my FAQ section for an explanation of how the numbers work) so it’s a no brainer if you’re not in a hurry.