Movie posters are meant to be attention grabbing, captivating, stunning and intriguing. The designers have a large canvas to work from, so their creativity has few limits. Because of this, movie posters can result in some of the smartest graphic design you'll ever see. Here are 50 brilliantly Photoshopped movie posters for your viewing pleasure.
1. Batman: The Dark Knight
2. Watchmen
3. Taken
4. X-Men 3
5. Push
6. Gladiator
7. Day Watch
8. Sin City
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
10. Spider-Man 3
11. Death Proof
12. Planet Terror
13. 300
14. Walk the Line
15. Superman Returns
16. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
17. Crash
18. Ocean's 12
19. Terminator: Salvation
20. I Am Legend
21. Star Wars Episode 1
22. War of the Worlds
23. Apocalypto
24. Narnia - Prince Caspian
25. Pan's Labyrinth
26. Cloverfield
27. American Gangster
28. Transformers
29. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
30. A Scanner Darkly
31. Hellboy II
32. V for Vendetta
33. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
34. Bridge to Terabithia
35. WALL-E
36. Napoleon Dynamite
37. Lord of War
38. Big Fish
39. Zodiac
40. Star Wars Trilogy DVD Poster
41. 3:10 to Yuma
42. No Country for Old Men
43. Jurassic Park 3
44. The Eye
45. Iron Man
46. Dawn of the Dead
47. Halloween
48. Perfume
49. Identity
50. Pathfinder
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Jentai March 18th
Very nice..
( )carlos March 18th
I dont know about you guys. but i been staring at the star wars and lord of war pieces for a while. amazing work. they epitomize the phrase “damn, i wish i woulda thought of that”
( )V-babe March 18th
Lord of War is my favorite.
( )rotten_rita March 20th
mine too! Did not knew this, they had another for relaese here in Germany. Always thought it is a pitty, that posters are no more really painted like back in the fiftys but this site has convincing examples for the new techniques …
( )Ricardo Ortiz March 18th
Excellent copilation of information about movies.
( )lawrence77 March 19th
These are my favorites:
( )1. Tonight we Dine in Hell! – 300
2. Pirates of the Caribbean – Jack Sparrow
bodhi March 19th
My favorites:
- 29. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- 38. Big Fish
- 6. Gladiator
It would be nice to see a tutorial to achieve the Movie Posters of the “Lord of War”.
A question:
( )it is certain that the work is done in photoshop?
FL March 19th
Could be done in photoshop or maybe an other program. But i think city scenes like for example what you see on the I Am Legend poster is 3d rendered graphics, maybe polished a bit up in photoshop or something.
But to give a short answer if all the work what you see is photoshop work: I think that’s a no
But anyway this is a great collection.. full of inspiration! great!
bodhi March 19th
Certainly a collection of great inspiration.
Really like the originality of “American Gangster” and the freshness of “WALL-E”.
This last is very intensive in the expressivity.
r4ge March 20th
some of them are real pictures edited in photoshop, and some of them have 3d renders with photoshop doing some editing and touch ups again.
Dennis Dunbar March 23rd
The I Am Legend city scape was built in PS using images from many different source images. Some of it was 3 D, but you’d be surprised how little detail there actually is in the 3D elements supplied to the ad agencies that design the posters.
By the time the design of the posters have been approved the effects houses that do the 3D work on the film have moved on to other projects and the studios rarely want to pay for them to re-render specific images. And when they do they’re often not as detailed as you need for a poster. (Most of that 3D work is not designed for close up inspection like a poster is.)
I do a fair amount of freelancing as a retoucher at the agency that did that poster as well as many of the others on the list. These guys really take their art seriously.
Underdog March 23rd
X-Men it’s awesome!
( )Ricardo Ortiz March 18th
Pathfinder, Identify, The eye, Lord of War and Cloverfield amaze me.
I want to now, “how to do it?”
I think that a movie poster tutorial will be an excellent post, for PSD TUTS.
( )Dyre March 24th
Tutorials for some of these would be really nice.
( )I can somewhat answer you for The Eye and Lord of War, though. The looks like the most basic kind of “Photoshopping” there is, but they did a pretty good job with it.. I’m pretty sure the Lord of War poster used something like if not the nozzle (hose?) tool in Painter. Lots of messing with brush flow, angle and jitter and probably many many layers to play with the colours though.
Mario Luevanos March 18th
Great collection.
( )AHMEN March 18th
Woah…..Lord of War poster was HUGE
it was nice though
( )Rob March 18th
Lovely examples; and notice how many of them use the font ‘Trajan’ or a close sister of it. Ah Hollywood and it’s love affair of Trajan…
( )hiflyer March 19th
Very true:
http://www.typografie.info/typowiki/index.php?title=Trajan_(Schrift)
( )Alex Hughes March 18th
I adore these articles!
The dark knight one has to be my favorite. It is amazingly clever, just like the film in general also.
( )Danny Outlaw March 21st
glad you like em!
( )Sakthivel Arugam April 1st
Very Nice work
can u give me …
movie poster tutorial link
Seraphim Collective March 18th
It’s really hard to pick a fave here. Lord of War, and War of the Worlds are in my top ten though.
( )Heyki March 18th
omnipotent photoshop!
( )look forward to movie poster tutorial in PSDTUTS !
Sebastian March 18th
I’d love to know how to make one like lord of war!
( )Seraphim Collective March 18th
Why is “X-Men Origin Wolverine” titled X-Men 3? Someone need to fix that.
“Push” could be replaced by “Pusnisher Warzone” easy! http://www.impawards.com/2008/punisher_war_zone_ver7.html
I didn’t even see the movie, but the artwork is nice!
( )Alexandre April 27th
Yep. X-Men 3? It would be X-Men 4, if you wanna number them.
( )Liam March 18th
Solid collection
There are a few bad ones, but, overall very good
A sigh of relief not seeing a lens flare…
( )Jason March 19th
Be fan of the ” Sweeney Todd & I am Legend ” posters. Some really nice poster artwork put up !!! Nice idea !
( )unfiltered March 19th
X-Men 3
( )http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/m/u/6/xmen3poster.jpg
karthikkumar March 19th
Transformers, pirates of the Carribean, x-men3, dark knight,
( )Garth March 19th
Not sure Ocean’s 12 qualifies as “Brilliantly Photoshopped” but a great list none-the-less.
( )Ricardo March 20th
I kinda thought the same, it looks like a vector work to me, and there are better tools to work with vectors than PS.
( )Ryan March 19th
Even though the movie most likely sucked, Step Up 2 The Streets had good photoshop work.
http://www.cinemablend.com/images/reviews/2681/_11998497321868.jpg
( )Colin March 19th
Honestly, I think that’s just a hand full of random posters. Some of them are really good yes, but the majority I feel are just high res posters you found on google.
( )greven March 19th
Couldn’t agree more. Some are pretty ordinary.
( )tibô March 19th
Idd, u could have picked some more original/personal posters like Kill Bill, recognizable between thousands.
But it’s always nice to look @ such posters, look details and inspiring
Bongobox March 23rd
And then there’s the issue that some may look cool, but don’t work:
“The last man on Earth is not alone” the poster says, which is obvious because he has his dog with him.
And others just seem like pretty collages of characters, or a scene from the movie.
( )Loveleen March 19th
very nice collection!!!
( )but we dont want another smashing magazine(www.smashingmagazine.com)..
we want tuts…
oh tuts, where art thou gone?
Lawrence77 March 19th
Yes this only i ask for several days?
( )no replies from the board members of PSDTUTS and ENVATO?
Jay | Crazy Vibe March 19th
Loved “Identity” and “Lord of War”
( )stiker March 19th
the lord of war is so amazing!!
( )WilhelmR March 19th
I’m with Colin and greven here, weak post.
-transformers, war of the worlds, walk the line, death proof, the dark knight, a scanner darkly, wall.e.. all those could’ve been made without even touching photoshop!
Let’s choose quality over quantity for the next post PLEASE.
( )macias March 19th
greaaat !
( )Stix March 19th
this post is OK..
- the claws in X-Men 3 looks so photoshopped
( )- the dog in I’m Legend also ..
- and i agree with WilhelmR ” Transformers, War of the Worlds, Walk the Line, Death Proof, The Dark Knight, A Scanner Darkly, Wall.E.. all those could’ve been made without even touching photoshop! “
Navdeep March 19th
Awesome!!!
( )Rogier March 19th
I have both the Sin City and the Death proof / Planet terror posters in my living room
( )John O March 19th
What about ‘The Day After Tomorrow’??
( )Seraphim Collective March 19th
Yeah, that could have replaced “Push” also.
( )Vicky March 19th
Wicked, Definitely a good collection of posters, most of the movies I’ve seen, however i cant wait to see Terminator Salvation
( )Garry A March 19th
I’m with Loveleen, can we have more tuts please???? These kinds of posts are great for inspiration but a few of these are hit and miss.
I like The Eye, War of the Worlds and Sweeny Todd but a few are not that amazing really like the Star Wars Trilogy, Jurassic Park 3.
We have Smashing Magazine for this kind of thing, please start giving us tuts like PSDTUTS used to be all about. Maybe including a few of the above at the beginning of a TUT would be a good idea.
( )EAMejia March 19th
Amazing collection!
( )François March 19th
Some of them are very cute!! but many are famous and not very original (terminator, lord of the ring,iron man…).
Thanks for the others^^!
( )devt March 19th
Some of these were really inspirational. Keep em coming!
( )digitalpharaoh March 19th
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
( )antonio March 19th
Someone it’s wonderful
( )javiinthezone March 19th
My favourite is “Sin City”!
( )Arthur Brown March 19th
Great movie posters. I’ve seen most of these, my favorite has to be the Lord of War poster. I imagine hours and hours of work went into that one.
( )Diogo Duarte March 19th
Lord of War’s just rlz !
There’s another one of Batman: The Dark Knight that rlz too!
http://screenrant.com/intense-new-dark-knight-poster-plus-new-trailer-news-vic-1541/
( )Will Neaverson March 19th
Some surprise me with their age – Gladiator and Jurassic Park are just as good as some of the more modern ones, and considering the improvements in technology, I am surprised that these still stand out. It just goes to show that no matter how much equipment you have, it still requires a good artist to make a poster stand out.
Thanks for the great post!
( )Mat March 19th
First video game covers, now movie posters? Come on! I could just do a search for “good movie posters” if I was really hard up for inspiration. I’d prefer to know the process of making them, not staring at them.
( )Simon Page March 19th
Again like the computer game covers this isn’t a strong list and I agree alot are photoshop less designs. Also think that a lot of good ones have been missed:
Here are my favourites:
( )http://simoncpage.co.uk/blog/2009/01/05/creative-movie-poster-inspiration/
Lawrence77 March 19th
great collections Simon page!
great
( )hello March 20th
But I think there are full of photoshop designs
( )Francisco Aguilera G. March 19th
Wow! great collection.
( )Drewwilliams27 March 19th
Sincity, spiderman, pirates of the caribean, and lord of war most impressive
( )lisa March 19th
lord of war was my favorite but also liked identity just think what a cool job that would be.
( )Master March 19th
what a “begginer thought” think you can print anything without a photoshop pos-production
( )Nikhil - Powerusers March 19th
Great collection!
( )Which is your favorite?
Mine is BATMAN The Dark Knight
John Cruz March 19th
Awesome post! The TUTS sites continue to make my life that much better. Thank you!
( )Sociss March 19th
Great list, I love it. Especially the lord of war one, amazing movie, amzing poster! A tut for this one would be awesome.
( )Melody March 19th
Eh. Some are good. Others are great. But a lot of them. Eh.
( )Armando March 19th
The posters for Walk The Line and Big Fish are hanging on a wall in my office!
( )Sergio Mejia March 19th
would be great a tut about how to make the lord of the war effect… cool.. nice…
( )Andrew March 19th
hope they got paid well…
…i’ve come across clients wanting this sort of quality for $100 and less…
…obviously i tell them where to go…
( )RUGRLN March 19th
GR8 stuff….
( )Mike March 19th
Pretty nifty collection, Lord of War being the best in my opinion. SinCity is a classic too.
( )Nice To See You March 19th
OMG! War of the Worlds, It’s my favorite…
Nice collection.
( )Dustin Ring March 19th
Loved the Lord of War one as well…. Designed by http://www.amachine.com/
( )André Severo March 19th
All poster have fonts, image treatments, perspectives, lights effects, and filters…
( )Out of tuts? with this game and movie posters we can request a tut about that effect right?
Franky March 19th
Amazing!
( )Video Tutorials March 19th
Nice collection of movie posters there, ill bet all of them were done in Photoshop!
( )Bryan March 19th
I don’t come to the tuts network to see collections of movie, game, or any other kind of poster. I PAY for tutorials, and that’s what I expect. That being said, there are some cool posters here, and some lousy ones. But why did you pick that Terminator poster? This ones much more post-worthy.
http://www.reelmovienews.com/images/gallery/new-terminator-salvation-poster.png
( )David B March 19th
Pretty awesome!
( )Johnson Koh March 20th
Good efforts in the compilation. This post can be a place that I will visit back for references next time when doing posters
Cheers.
( )franklin March 20th
jurassic park? really…
( )insic March 20th
super nice.
( )Shiju Alex March 20th
Good collection indeed
( )sushil March 20th
ultimate work! a big wow
( )Shane March 20th
Wow!
( )GlassHeart March 20th
I Choose the Dark Knight.
Why… so… serius….
^_^
( )Johannes Leuchovius March 20th
Great stuff and some good inspiration here.
( )tru March 20th
terminator has another poster which is close to the style of lord of war . ( I have watched 2/3 of the movies mentioned here ^_^ )
( )Ludovic March 20th
The “i am legend” one is kinda lame :\
( )ZaFaR March 20th
Awesome! thanks u very much.
( )Ilena March 20th
They are are very beautiful. I like Zodiac the best. It is cool how the bridge disappears into the fog. Makes me wish I was an artist.
( )Jaime March 20th
Very Inspirational!!
( )grrr March 21st
my favourite is “MATRIX trilogie” !!!!
( )vincent March 21st
Verry nice!! Gladiator is my favorite.
( )Duckie March 21st
I love how the V for Vendetta came out.
( )graphicartist2k5 March 21st
to all who want to talk crap about which one sucks, and which one doesn’t, remember this: the people that designed those posters got paid to do it, and they are professional graphic designers. i will say that the jurassic park one wasn’t all that spectacular, but then again, maybe that’s all the movie studio wanted. not every poster has to be in-your-face. most of the time, the simplest design makes the biggest impact.
( )conviuzd March 22nd
I like Perfume
( )IMO designer kade great work with mindmaps and brainstorm before he starts with photoshop.
endomorph March 22nd
Lord of War is just WOW! so WOW!
( )Westy | P H O T O N O M Y March 22nd
Great collection
( )jay March 22nd
wow… many of my favourite movies is shown in this list!
( )SKyintHesea March 23rd
they all look so amazing , I just cannot get my eyes off those posters , they have something that is so attractive especially Pirates Of The Caribbean
( )Jan March 23rd
Nice collection!
“Lord of War” isn’t the same size as the others though.
( )victoria blount March 23rd
Great collection, one of my favorites is the Dark Knight. There are some brilliant ideas, beautifully constructed in photoshop. Definitely some good inspiration to want to further your photoshop skills, and what you can achieve if you do.
( )seyi oyekoya March 23rd
all posters are cool.i like the pathfinder,lord of war,demon barber of ..,and a scanner darkly.thks for the post
( )Sputink March 23rd
Can anyone post a tutorial for any of these
especially of the lord of the rings one or the push one i really like the circles
( )Eric Shafer March 23rd
Haha, these are always great roundups Danny!
Featured here: http://www.presidiacreative.com/web-picks-17/
( )jen March 23rd
some of these are cool for sure. but i have to disagree that there are not just a “few limits” when it comes to movie posters. i used to work at a really large movie poster design firm and i saw many limits. lots of contractual limits with the stars usually. wanting to make a cool poster and then realizing you are obligated to have two big heads on there. things like that. anyway, nice roundup.
( )Jonathas Scott March 23rd
“Identity” is the winner way far. Followed by “Perfume” and “Dark Knight”
It is clearly a design thinking process not only a photoshop technique.
( )david March 24th
incredible
very nice
( )Anvics March 24th
It’s just amazing………..
( )Dyre March 24th
I’m thinkin’ “Identity” and the “Lord of War” posters are the most appealing to me. They’re actually clever where as the other ones seem typically hype-filled.
(Note: i might have missed some other ones. I got annoyed using my mousewheel so I started winging through them a bit with the scroll bar >_>; I feel sorry for the people with smaller resolutions.)
( )kornykornelius March 24th
All the above are nice… Just that terminator salvation not impress me enough, not because of the skill of drawing but the idea and feel not capturing enough
( )Matt March 25th
Numbers: 1, 4, and 21 are my faves. Clever design is very interesting to me. So minimal and subtle but very powerful. Lord of War is good too, but a bit over done. Movie goers who see something like that wont appreciate the amount of time that took and will look at it just as long as the others. IMO.
( )Tim March 25th
Very inspirational! I was sitting next to the guy who designed the Spiderman 3 Poster! lol i feel slightly famous now
( )Steve March 25th
Really nice collection! I love the retro style of the Death Proof posters. Awesome post
( )Anwar Vazquez March 26th
Star Wars Episode I is my favorite, so simple yet so meaningful.
( )Robbie March 27th
WHERE IS RESERVOIR DOGS?!!?!?!?!
( )Tovkal March 28th
And the question is : How they do it? Incredible.
( )umid March 29th
Very nice..
( )Gratitude
Mr.Kim March 30th
Seems like “The top 50 movies that I like collection” more.
( )John Loudon March 31st
Really nice, A lot of work has went into some of these posters, Epic skill shown.
Top 3
1. Lord of war is my favorite for difference.
2. JP3 for simplicity.
3. and Lord of the rings as I used to own this poster!
Really nice post cheers.
( )Ralph DeLuca March 31st
I think these are some of the best examples of recent movie posters are. I am a collector of vintage movie posters, so I am more into the poster art of the 1920’s-50s. I would make an exception and actually buy some of these original movie posters.
Cool Stuff
Ralph DeLuca
( )Madison, NJ
Mike March 31st
Those are really good
( )Kirill March 31st
These are really good
( )Anton March 31st
These posters are better than the movies that they were made for
( )Pandiyan April 1st
Cooool Collections
( )Nameless April 1st
I know for a fact Shepard Fairey aka Obey did the walk the line poster and he has stated he does not know how to use photoshop or any program along those lines in an article i read on him awhile back. Love the poster thou.
( )Meenu April 2nd
Great work!!!
What a creativity & concept .
Hellboy, lord of war and perfume are superbbb….
dude good work, thanks for nice collection……
( )alberto April 15th
yes!! so great…!!! inspirational
( )Oliver April 19th
Beautiful, never seen the Lord Of War poster before, that one is brilliant, encapsulates the movie perfectly.
Good to see dark Knight at the top, that poster, well it summarizers the movie
( )Gyrel Dagooc April 22nd
All are cool!
but…
37 and 38 catches my attention….Love it!
( )Sigit Mahadjatis April 25th
wOOW…. its verry nice poster…..
( )Mike April 28th
well since pirates of the caribeans, fear and loathing in las vegas and probably LOTR are originally hand painted by Drew Struzan, you’re probably wrong about many of those being photoshop designs! specially the older ones!
( )Darshan May 25th
where is the photoshop ?
show me this posters tutorials
( )Darshan May 25th
i would show some posters tutorials!!!
( )goe May 30th
are ALL of these photoshopped?
( )Landscape Photography July 13th
Dig Sweeney Todd… but thats probably because I love the movie! … some of them are very cliched though (not that the Sweeney Todd one is extraordinary)
( )Cara Dixon October 20th
Love the ‘Batman Begins’ and the ‘Superman Returns’ posters! Both are really striking! Great post! Thanks for sharing!
( )