(Lack of) movie posters

[Frank Cox]

Are you guys getting less movie posters these days?

I use to keep upcoming movie posters in a fair-sized box, and now all of my upcoming posters fit into one smallish roll.

I'm getting to a point where I'll have to start doubling up stuff and putting the same poster in the window and on the wall of the lobby to fill in the space, and that's never happened before.

[Jon Dent]

They are less reliable for us as well. We used to get posters for everything, even stuff we weren't going to carry. That's more or less stopped.

[Mike Blakesley]

Fewer posters here as well. We got only one (1) copy of the Top Gun final onesheet. Disney posters tend to show up automatically - we've already gotten some for Thor. Same with Lionsgate, although they are spotty. Universal used to have a website that was clunky, but worked. Now they have an email address that works, but no automatic advance shipments anymore.

Sony used to be very responsive and would send what I asked for plus a few more titles, but a few months ago they installed a new rep for this region. I can't even get her to answer an email and they won't send me anything until about 3 days before we open a movie.

They all talk a good game at Cinemacon about how they would love to get their posters and such into our hands, but talk is cheap. Personally I think the push will be on for digital onesheets sooner than later. While I'd love to convert over to digital, we have 16 poster locations so it would be a major expense, not to mention 4 of those spots are in hallways leading to our auditorium and I wouldn't want those areas to be "lit up" by a TV screen.

[Frank Cox]

I think you're absolutely right about the digital one-sheets; in fact maybe this is the start of a push to exactly that.

I did a bit of looking into digital poster displays a while back and discovered that they are (a) not particularly easy to find and (b) outrageously expensive.

When/if we can't get the printed paper any more I guess I'll be forced to get one, but I think that's what I'll get. One. I currently have four posters in my front windows (visible from the street) and four more on the lobby wall. I'll put one digital display in the front window and do a bit of patching and re-painting on the lobby wall.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I think you're absolutely right about the digital one-sheets; in fact maybe this is the start of a push to exactly that.

I did a bit of looking into digital poster displays a while back and discovered that they are (a) not particularly easy to find and (b) outrageously expensive.

You can make this as expensive as you want, but what about a bunch of 90-degree-rotated screen with an Android stick in it and something like Opensignage?

[Marcel Birgelen]

While I'd love to convert over to digital, we have 16 poster locations so it would be a major expense, not to mention 4 of those spots are in hallways leading to our auditorium and I wouldn't want those areas to be "lit up" by a TV screen.

I'd hoped that by now we would have some large-format color E-ink displays, but unfortunately, that never materialized...

[Jim Cassedy]

Just last night, my manager walked into the booth and said:

Q: "Do you have a Thor poster?"

A: "No, but I have a thor thumb!"; I thaid while holding up my bandaged phalanges. .

ThumbOne.jpg

- - - and before he walked out, he gave me the finger. . .

(So, while there may be a lack of new movie posters,
there's apparently there's no shortage of corny puns)
-jc-

[Mark Lane]

Yes, getting posters from the studios is growing harder and harder. I have to ask for almost every poster.
Universal is still pretty good about sending poster automatically... but all other studios I have to request them, which is hard since I don't know what posters have been printed and ready to ship.
I can ask for a poster now, but it is not printed, then I will have to ask again later.

[James Wyrembelski]

I use the Odin website for ordering. Pretty much carries everything I need outside of Disney and Universal. Disney automatically sends things out and Universal is just a quick email. Odin is nice too since I can see what's being offered. I like to hang some of the bus shelters in the auditorium for upcoming films and I can request them through that as well as standard one sheets.

I'm glad they stopped auto sending one sheets. Through most of 2021 I was getting a plethora of one sheets for films that wouldn't stand a snowball's chance of playing here. I just considered it wasteful on their part to FedEx overnight one sheets to films I wasn't even sure I had heard of.

[Jim Cassedy]

I would imagine that some day those big cardboard lobby standees
will be a thing of the past too, & will be replaced by 3D holographic
projections in the lobby, once they improve the technology for doing so.
ThorStandee.jpg
(Image Source: Pintrest)

[Marcel Birgelen]

I would imagine that some day those big cardboard lobby standees
will be a thing of the past too, & will be replaced by 3D holographic
projections in the lobby, once they improve the technology for doing so.

Once we invent the fairy dust that makes light magically bend in thin air, we'll finally see realistic volumetric displays.

[Mike Blakesley]

Given the proliferation of video screens of almost every shape and size appearing nearly everywhere these days (especially in places like Vegas, where just about every sign is actually a video screen), you would think some enterprising outfit would come out with an affordable networkable package for theater lobbies. Of course the pesky economy-of-scale thing arises.

There seemed to be fewer large standees on display at CinemaCon this year too. I used to get maybe half-a-dozen actual standees a year...mostly from Fox, because I could order them off of their website. They were the one company that actually seemed eager to get their stuff into theaters no matter the size. For a while we got a few of the type that are a giant version of the onesheet with an easel-back for standing. We haven't gotten one of those in a long time now either. Paramount used to send a standee once in a while -- the most recent one we got was for Addams Family 2, I think.

I do wonder how many large expensive standees and up sitting in warehouses (or the back-rooms of chain theaters) and never get used.

[Terry Monohan]

Time to bring back National Screen Service!

[Mike Blakesley]

Wouldn't THAT be awesome. I would almost be willing to go back to paying for the damn one-sheets. (Almost.)