All World News Catch: The 20 Best Movie Posters of 2017

Sunday 31 December 2017

The 20 Best Movie Posters of 2017

We’re close to the end of 2017, and as we rush to catch up on some of the awards season contenders in order to finalize our lists of the Top 10 Movies of 2017 (coming next week), it’s time to take a look back at the year in cinema.

Before we ever see a trailer for a movie, we’ll often see a teaser poster that tries to set the stage for what’s to come on the big screen. A majority of official movie posters from studios are boring, familiar and don’t do much to get people excited. But every year, there are at least a couple dozen movie posters that deserve recognition. So without further adieu, here are the 20 Best Movie Posters of 2017.

In order to be considered for the list, each poster had to be an officially sanctioned movie poster released in conjunction with a film released in 2017. There are also no Mondo prints, screen prints, or giclées, but you may find posters that were created as official IMAX or promotional posters for theatrical promotion. Foreign posters also qualified.

Keep in mind this is completely subjective and not meant to be definitive. If you disagree, feel free to respectfully say as much and chime in with your favorite posters in the comments. So without further adieu, let’s get on with the countdown.

20. Split

The poster is simple in its execution, using a silhouette of James McAvoy’s character Kevin as the focus and splitting it with a lightning-style crack through his head and into his body. The crack is filled with the various personalities residing inside of him. It’s a simple design that brings to mind the work of Saul Bass.

19. Cars 3

The Cars franchise gets lambasted by even the most loyal Pixar fans (ourselves included), but it’s hard to deny the fact that this is a great teaser poster for the third installment of the series. Most of the time, sparks and embers appear on a movie poster for no discernible reason. In this case, they’re coming from Lightning McQueen’s body as he suffers a catastrophic wreck that nearly ends his career. For a family friendly movie, it’s a shocking image to use to kick off the marketing, and that makes it a great teaser poster.

18. Justice League

Even though Justice League may not have been exactly what we were hoping to see as redemption for the DC Extended Universe, we can always look to this poster as a symbol of hope. To be clear, this version of the poster arrived after Justice League hit theaters, which is why Superman is included with the rest of the line-up. But even without Superman, this poster is gorgeous because it borrows the look of legendary comic artist Alex Ross’ illustrations.

17. Blade Runner 2049

There were a lot of bad posters for Blade Runner 2049 using the clashing of blue and orange hues to draw attention to the movie (which obviously didn’t work since it bombed at the box office). But this poster stands out from the crowd because of the stunning composition. The poster doesn’t go for anything flashy, but fills nearly the entire poster with white, allowing Ryan Gosling and his vehicle to stand out while also fitting in with the aesthetic created by the original Blade Runner.

16. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

While this theatrical poster for Star Wars: The Last Jedi may not evoke the work of Drew Struzan, the spirit of his illustrations is still here. If anything, what I like about this poster is that it feels like a modernized take on Struzan’s posters. The floating heads and bodies can be a lazy way to create a poster, but a poster like this fits in line with the Star Wars marketing style. But for me, what really makes it work is the rich red hues all over.

15. Thor: Ragnarok

Blockbusters can often get lazy with their poster marketing campaigns, especially when it comes to superhero movies. They slap together some Photoshopped images of the characters into a kind of collage with some pieces from key sets and a couple characters in action. But much like the movie, the poster for Thor: Ragnarok stood out from the crowd by not only bringing this vibrant color palette to the table, but also this symmetric, totem pole style composition that uses the traditionally sloppily Photoshopped elements in a way that’s extremely pleasing to the eye.

14. Wonder Woman

What more needs to be said about this richly colored Wonder Woman poster? This one stand out as my personal favorite of the overall bunch (all of which shared similar traits) simply because it doesn’t completely show Gal Gadot’s face. While the actress has a perfectly lovely face, I like the idea of a young girl being able to look at this poster and putting herself in the role of Wonder Woman.