Film Posters: Positioning and Sizes

Place	Advantage	Disadvantage
Bus Stops	Passers by will see the poster on the bus stop and people waiting for the bus cant help but be drawn into looking at the poster. Drivers stuck in traffic may also pay attention to posters on the sides of bus stops as they are often facing the road so that more people can see them, including people on other buses.	People at bus stops are often only there for short periods of time and may not have time to notice the poster or may even be paying more attention to bus times than the poster itself. Often bus stops can be busy and over crowded meaning that the posters are left unseen by people waiting for their bus.
Billboards	The largest form of "poster". Due to its large size billboard advertisements cannot be missed. Usually positioned near office blocks or next to main roads, people in cars are drawn to look at the billboards as they pass or are stuck in traffic.	people driving past billboard posters may be paying more attention to the road than to the poster. For people on the ground, billboard posters can also be too high up for pedestrians to be able to read and can also be subject to weather damage. Billboards are also only frequently seen in big cities with lots of people and tall buildings to see them from.
Magazine	Often movie posters within magazines take up an A4 page, making it clear and noticeable to the reader. Films can also advertise themselves on the covers of magazines such as Empire or Total Film.	Readers of magazines often aren't "readers" at all they are more like flickers, who quickly flick through the pages and look only at the features they want to look at, often skipping past any film adverts and posters hidden within the pages. Modernly, less and less people are buying magazines and the advertising within them is generally not being seen.
Cinema	Movie posters in cinemas come in different forms. Some US high concept or UK mid budget films not only have framed posters on the walls but also have large 3D cardboard cutouts of the films poster in the lobby areas of cinemas. These cutouts and posters can often cause an audience to react to them and decide what film will be their next cinema experience. Sometimes the cutouts in cinema lobbies are interactive, to try and draw more attention to them.	The large 3D cutouts within cinema lobbies often get in the way of people or even sometimes get knocked over, meaning they are subject to damage but also to being ignored due to causing frustration within the audience. The framed posters in cinemas are also often ignored as people tend to walk past them without paying attention to them because of the excitement they feel as they are walking towards their screening of a different film.

Examples

Bus Stop: Up (Docter/ Peterson, 2009)

The amusing feature of this poster is the involvement of the balloons above the poster itself. The bright colours above the bus stop are bound to draw attention to the balloons and to thus to the poster,as the string on the balloons leads directly to the rope on the poster which the character is hanging on to, if the poster hadn't drawn in attention already itself. With balloons having a large narrative impact within the film, the production companies can save the details of the balloons from the poster, meaning they can add more detail about the film to the actual poster and add balloons above it for marketing and also comedic effect. It could be seen that having the title "UP" towards the top of the poster is almost telling the audience of the poster to look up at the balloons.

Billboard: Deadpool (Miller, 2016)

This billboard feature hardly any text apart from the release date of the film. The feature of the Emoji's on the poster creates a game for the people who see it, trying to decipher what the images mean. This is another example of companies using comedy to promote their films, using modern "language". The simplistic approach to the billboard poster is effective in capturing the audiences attention to the film title and release date alone, without tempting them with pictures of the stars within the film.

Magazine: Ant-Man (Reed, 2015)

There is no other text on this magazine cover which shows that this is a special feature cover simply for Ant-Man. The editors of the magazine have even included altering the font of the magazines name by creating the word "Film" out of ants. This adds comedic effect to the advertisement but also shows some more detail of the film. The title of the feature has even been "shrunk" to emphasise the ant theme throughout one magazine cover to create as much interest as possible with only minimal text. This poster features only one character but in many different forms to create the illusion of the character shrinking through still images. 

Cinema: Dark Shadows (Burton, 2012)

The inclusion of a red, throne-like chair positioned directly in front of Johnny Depp's character in this film gives a photo opportunity to the audience, allowing them to theoretically take a photo with Johnny Depp. This is another comedic approach to poster advertising drawing attention to itself easily. If someone were to stand far enough away from the poster, an audience member may be able to have their photo taken with the entire cast of the film. However, Johnny Depp is the only cast name featured on the poster which shows his dominance and importance within the film.

Poster Sizes

One Sheet Portraits

In the UK, One sheet portraits are typically sized at 27 inches by 40 inches (686 mm x 1020mm).

UK Quad

Quad posters are in landscape format, standardly sized at 30 inches by 40 inches (762mm x 1020mm)

T-Sides

T-side posters, or bus posters, are always a popular choice of advertising in the UK due to the high amount of people who use public transport. These are called T-sides because the poster itself is shaped as a T to fit the side of the bus.