City of Angels movie poster

Big Heads Floating in the Sky

City of Angels movie poster

The Top Movie Poster Cliché

Stop us if you have seen this poster composition before: Large images of movie star faces (often of a couple), with a small scene (usually at the bottom of the poster one-sheet) depicting some sort of action or activity. Sound familiar?

Casablanca Italian movie poster
Casablanca Italian movie poster
In the film advertising industry, this is known as Big Heads Floating in the Sky. The “big headed stars” layout is so common it is often a point of criticism directed towards modern poster art. But this type of layout has been around since the beginning of movie advertising for one simple reason:

Movie stars sell movies.

In fact, another name for this type of movie poster is called a Star Sell. This star sell mantra was true back in the days of Casablanca, and it is even more true today. After all, if Paramount just paid Tom Cruise $20 million dollars to star in a Summer “tent-pole” motion picture for the studio, you can bet they aren’t going to keep his participation a secret from the film’s one-sheet art.

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