There are people who have made collecting classic movie posters a hobby. By classic movie posters we are referring to original print runs of graphic advertisements that are at least 25 years old. Note that the value of the classic movie poster is solely based on how good the poster is (and not how good the movie was). This means a Hollywood flop can have a valuable classic movie poster and an Academy Award winning movie can have a poster that is not comparatively popular. The actual value of a classic movie poster is based on the artist, the image, the rarity of the poster and the condition it is in. It goes without saying that posters that are signed by famous actors fetch a lot more.
Famous Classic Movie Posters
Some of the most famous classic movie posters are Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Vertigo, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, Rebel Without a Cause, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Apartment. Others are My Fair Lady, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Thing, The Seven Year Itch and Pulp Fiction. Note that some posters of artists are more expensive than the posters of the movie (such as Audrey Hepburn posters from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Humphrey Bogart posters from Casablanca).
Why Do People Collect Classic Movie Posters?
There is a lot of money to be made in the classic movie posters market. The current record for a poster was Jules Cheret’s Moulin Rouge: La Goulue which went for $241,500 in 1999. Other than Jules Cheret, other blue chip names in the classic movie posters market are Alphonse Mucha and A.M. Cassandre. Fakes are rare in the classic movie posters world, but reproductions are not. You should be on the lookout for such numbers as ‘R56’ (which means the poster is an official 1956 reissue) as this leads to dramatic differences in price. Taking the example of ‘Gone With The Wind’, the original one-sheet poster of the 1939 movie goes for between $5,000 and $6,000, a 1947 reissue recently went for $375 and a 1954 reissue recently went for $250. Another price determinant is if the movie is a foreign release. Even if you do not love the movie, you could take the poster as an investment.
People collect movie posters because old movies were meaningful and classy. They had qualities and characteristics of their own. Becoming a collector allows you to keep the memories of movies that shaped the person you are today.
The hobby is a great pastime. A collection of classic movie posters gives you something to talk about when you have friends around.
Consider buying poster frames as they help preserve your posters.