Heritage Galleries November '09 Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' November movie poster auction ended this weekend with The Black Cat one sheet garnering an impressive $334,600! This ties it for fourth place for movie poster sales of all-time (see link below).

The next best showing among one sheets was $33,460 for an FN grade Citizen Kane.

Other top selling one sheets included several silent era posters that scored in the neighborhood of $20,000— posters for Fritz Lang's Spies, Griffith's True Heart Susie, and Scott Sidney's Tarzan the Ape Man.



Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Heritage Galleries July '09 Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' July auction ended this weekend with wacky 1923 Hollywood one sheet (grade: FN/VF)--I love this one!-- going for $89,625. Too bad this silent film no longer exists....

A grade FN+ Gilda went for $33,460; a grade FN/VF Broadway Melody went for $31,070; and-- a steal at $5,078.75-- was a VF Vertigo, possibly the greatest poster of all time (I'm actually glad that so many copies of it exist that, conceivably, I could own one someday!).

I was surprised that the foreign posters didn't get big numbers, per se. The Seven Samurai-- a great poster (grade: VF)-- went for $13,145.

If I were bidding, I would have had my eye on the Trader Horn poster (grade: VG/FN), which went for $11,950-- an odd but interesting poster and an underrated film.



There were many noteworthy items in this auction. Just to name one more, a lobby card from Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (a VERY rare item), went for $14,340.



Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Movie Poster Abstractions (Trivia!)

A friend pointed me in the direction of this today-- a website that creates abstractions of movie posters. The result is a trivia game of sorts in which a general poster image is seen but the detail removed. It has old and new posters alike. Some are easy, some hard, some impossible! But it's fun.

Here is the link.

Some of the "Answers" can be found at this link.

Heritage Galleries March Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' March Auction ended this weekend, resulting in the fifth-highest amount of money ever paid for a movie poster-- the $310,700 fetched for the style F Dracula(1931) one sheet.

The next biggest seller in the March auction was a tie between the 14 x 36 Freaks (1932) poster, and the Walt Disney short-subject Mad Doctor one sheet-- both of which garnered a not-too-shabby $107,550 apiece.

The Grade VF+ Citizen Kane went for $47,800; the grade VF- Casablanca went for $10,755; and a steal at $8,365 was the FN+ Lady From Shanghai.

An impressive auction for Heritage (especially considering the continued terrible state of the economy).

Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Internet Movie Poster Award Winners 2008 Announced

The IMPAwards.com site has posted their winners for the best (and worst) movie posters of 2008 in various categories. Click here for the full list of the winners.

One Line Review's Top Ten Movie Posters of 2008

#1.) THE DARK KNIGHT - TEASER. Perfectly captures the mood you'd want for THE DARK KNIGHT. Appropriately menacing and disturbing without being offputting. In person it's even better.











#2.) THE BANK JOB. Retro and stylish.
















#3.) ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO. Funny and daring, and just tame enough to get past the censor-- too bad it didn't! And you gotta love the absence of a tag line when you've got COMING SOON.












#4.) W. - TEASER. Nice image. Plus, it was a movie with a heightened anticipation, so the perfect tag.














#5.) GET SMART - TEASER. Another funny Steve Carrell poster! With all the possible choices, this was the way to go. It features the stars and the humor, without being corny.








#6.) DOUBT. The use of color around the border of the cross is startling. The idea of not featuring the star-studded cast WAS the way to go.









#7.) STEP BROTHERS. Trumped a bit by a similar idea for THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, but still, it works.













#8.) SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Kinetic and illustrative of the film. Nice splash of color for a Bollywood import.















#9.) FUNNY GAMES. Striking. Gets its point across.















#10.) MY WINNIPEG. The tag is hopelessly overused, but the image dares you to check out the movie.


















HM.) 27 DRESSES. Actually takes a chance and breaks the mold for the usual romatic comedy poster.

HM.) FOOL'S GOLD. Shows off it's atractive leads without being obvious; a nice touch with the gold.

HM.) VALKYRIE. Smart and interesting, willing to be more graphic art than photographic art sa with most movie posters.

HM.) THE VISITOR. Takes a well worn concept and pulls off a solid campaign for a "small" film.

Internet Movie Poster Awards Nominees Announced

The IMPAwards.com site has posted their picks for nominees of the best (and worst) movie posters in various categories. Winners will be announced Monday, January 19th. Click here for the full list of nominees in all categories. Tomorrow I'll be posting my own Ten Best Posters of 2008.

Vote For the Internet Movie Poster Awards Nominees 2008/09

On Movie Poster Forum, you can voice your opinion for the Internet Movie Poster Awards. Do it soon as the nominations will be announced on January 12th.

The categories are:

Best Movie Poster
Worst Movie Poster
Best Blockbuster Poster (among the top 10 grossing films)
Best Teaser / Advance
Worst Teaser / Advance
Funniest Poster
Creepiest Poster
Bravest Poster (big stars without the big faces)
Best Character Poster Set
Best Funny Tag Line
Best Serious Tag Line

Heritage Galleries November Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' November Auction ended this weekend, resulting in the sixth-highest amount of money ever paid for a movie poster-- the $239,000 fetched for the Flying Down to Rio one sheet. Interestingly, the biggest seller at July's auction was the Flying Down to Rio two sheet and window card.











The next biggest seller in the November auction was the 1925 one sheet of Phantom of the Opera, which garnered a not-too-shabby $155,350, putting it as the #11 seller of all-time. The third biggest seller was a Moon Over Miami three sheet which sold for $47,800. The next biggest selling one sheet was a 1938 re-release of Dracula; the next highest selling original movie poster was a 1926 Faust one sheet which sold for $23,900.



An impressive auction for Heritage (especially considering the state of the economy).

Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Movie Poster "Letters" Game on Empire Magazine Site

AN YOU GUESS WHAT MOVIE POSTER THIS "C" IS FROM?



Here's a cool thing I ran across. Empire magazine has posted individual letters from movie posters and you have to guess the movie. The best part is you can keep guessing and it'll tell you if you're right or wrong (you can give up on individual letters too, and be shown the answer). I got 30-odd right (mostly missed the older titles).

Here's the: Link.

Heritage Galleries July Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' July Auction ended this weekend. The two items that fetched the highest prices were from the first Astaire-Rogers film Flying Down to Rio (a two sheet poster and a window card)— they went for $26,290 each.

The third highest price realized— and the highest for a one-sheet— went to Creature from the Black Lagoon, which went for $25,095.

Next on the one-sheets was This Gun For Hire ($22,705).

Of the ones that caught my eye (and which I posted in my previous blog entry), that terrific Salome poster went for $10,157.50; Vertigo (VF- quality) went for $4,182.50; Invasion of the Body Snatchers (VF- quality) for just $1,553.50. The Flash Gordon poster is now on Heritage's post-auction bidding.

Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Heritage Galleries July Auction

Heritage Auction Galleries, based in Dallas Texas, hosts three major vintage movie poster auctions annually (in the months of March, July, and November) amidst many throughout the year. Among this month's one-sheets for auction include posters of silent era films, 40s noirs, 40s westerns, and 50s sci-fi. The one-sheets include a significant number of Hitchcock titles, among them the classic Saul Bass Vertigo poster.




Here are some of the other one-sheets up for auction this month:

37th Annual Movie Marketing Key Art Awards: Posters

Catching up with the Key Art Awards winners announced in mid-June, here were the winners in the five feature film movie poster categories:



Action/Horror Poster

Other nominees included:
The Number 23
30 Days of Night
28 Weeks Later: Teaser
Vacancy

I too would have gone with Grindhouse from these nominees as well.



Comedy Poster

Other nominees included:
Blades of Glory
The Darjeeling Limited
Superbad
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

I would have gone with The Darjeeling Limited from these nominees.



Documentary Poster

Other nominees included:
The 11th Hour
Jimmy Carter: Man From the Plains
Sicko
Zoo

I too would have gone with Taxi to the Dark Side from these nominees as well.



Drama Poster

Other nominees included:
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Black Snake Moan
I'm Not There
Zodiac

I would have gone with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead from these nominees.



Family Poster

Other nominees included:
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Bee Movie: Teaser
Shrek: Teaser
Surf's Up: Teaser

I would have gone with the Shrek teaser from these nominees.

Great Saul Bass Tribute with Star Wars Titles

Saul Bass was one of the great masters of graphic design: his film titles and movie posters for VERTIGO (1958), ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959), and so many others are legendary. He worked from the 1950s to the 1990s and among his last credits were the Martin Scorsese films GOODFELLAS (1990), THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993), and CASINO (1995).





Although Bass was certainly active in the 1970s, as a fun tribute (and somewhat of a parody), someone created a STAR WARS title design in the style of Bass. Much of the best of Bass has been posted on youtube. Below are embeds of the titles from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, and the brilliant and funny reimagining of STAR WARS.

"Babe Comes Home" One-Sheet Scores Highest Bid at Heritage

Heritage Auction Galleries, based in Dallas Texas, hosts three major vintage movie poster auctions annually (in the months of March, July, and November) amidst many throughout the year. The big news at the November 2007 auction was the sale of the only known style D one-sheet of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. This one-of-kind poster netted $334,600 (the fourth highest ever paid for a movie poster and the most ever at Heritage).







At this month's auction, the Babe Ruth-starrer one-sheet BABE COMES HOME garnered the highest bid: $77,675. This poster has been auctioned at high numbers in the past and is on the list of the top ten highest-selling movie posters of all-time [LINK at learnaboutmovieposters, note: not updated yet with 3/08 Heritage auction]).









Other top sellers in Heritage's March auction included one-sheets of 1935s THE RAVEN ($53,775)...
















and 1937s LOVE BEFORE BREAKFAST (starring Carole Lombard) ($47,800).