A well-designed movie poster accomplishes many things at once.
It shares basic information, like the title, cast, and release date.
It also indicates the film's genre and hints at the plot.
But the best posters go one step further, capturing the movie's mood and atmosphere,
and getting you excited enough to buy a ticket.
A poorly-designed movie poster, however, does only one thing: it makes fans very, very angry.
There may be no such thing as bad publicity, but when promoting a movie, you want to make
fans excited, not annoyed.
The following posters demonstrate why.
Avatar
For the most part, this Avatar poster is fine.
It's not the most exciting image, but it works, at least until you get to the logo, and, more
specifically, the font.
As far as typefaces go, Papyrus isn't quite as hated as Comic Sans, but it's close.
It's kitschy, boring, and constantly used in inappropriate contexts.
Graphic designers hate it.
The font's creator, Chris Costello, even admitted to CBS News that Papyrus is probably "overused."
"And again if I could take this time to apologize to my brother and sister graphic designers,
I'm a graphic designer as well."
In the years since, people haven't forgotten about this misstep.
In 2017, eight years after Avatar hit theaters, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch skewering
the logo.
"Do you remember the Avatar logo?"
"Uh, ya.
It was tribal yet futuristic."
"Papyrus!"
Some things are simply unforgivable.
Papyrus is one of them.
The Heat
Look at the British poster for The Heat and, without looking at the credits, see if you
can figure out who the two stars are.
On the left, that's clearly Sandra Bullock rocking the shades and tactical vest.
But who's that skinny, unrecognizable woman on the right?
Surprise!
It's none other than Melissa McCarthy.
She just looks a little different, thanks to some Photoshop-assisted weight loss.
Naturally, McCarthy's fanbase didn't react well to the poster's implicit body-shaming.
The actress, however, handled the controversy with her trademark sense of humor, jokingly
blaming her husband, telling The Hollywood Reporter,
"We had a big fight about it because I said I wanted it 80 percent smaller and he said
he wanted it 70 percent."
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens' official American poster is exactly what you'd expect.
Like previous Star Wars posters, it features a painterly collage highlighting most of the
main cast.
Lead characters Rey and Finn get a big spotlight, while main villain Kylo Ren lurks ominously
in the background.
Han Solo gets a plum spot, as he deserves, and some spaceships and stormtroopers round
the whole thing out.
The Chinese version is almost exactly the same, except for one key difference: instead
of being front and center, Finn is absolutely tiny.
As far as anyone can tell, the only reason Finn was shrunk is because John Boyega, the
actor who plays him, is black.
At least that's what fans argued on Twitter, and they seem to have a point: Poe Dameron
and Maz Kanata, who are also both played by actors of color, were cut from the poster
entirely.
The Force Awakens might take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but racism
doesn't have any place in the Star Wars universe.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Ask any X-Men fan, and they'll agree that Apocalypse is a very bad guy.
Still, there are ways to play up your villain's villainy without resorting to cheap shock
tactics.
In a heavily criticized X-Men Apocalypse poster, Apocalypse's massive hand is wrapped around
Mystique's neck.
It's a disturbing choice for a PG-13 superhero flick, and people noticed the specific violence
towards Jennifer Lawrence's character.
Actress Rose McGowan led the charge, telling The Hollywood Reporter,
"There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence
against women is the way to market a film."
In response to the outcry, Fox quickly apologized and removed the poster from circulation.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man: Homecoming's marketing got off to a great start.
First, Tom Holland's Peter Parker made his debut in Captain America: Civil War and almost
stole the entire movie.
Next, there were some well-received teaser posters, which let everyone know that this
was the laid back, fun, and fully MCU-integrated webslinger we'd been clamoring to see for
years.
But then the final poster arrived, and to call it a mess would be kind.
Characters appear both in and out of costume for no reason, and nothing flows, making the
final product look like a rushed Photoshop job.
Why Sony decided that this muddled, busy image should represent a highly anticipated Spider-Man
flick remains a mystery, especially considering that some of the alternate options are pretty
darn good.
"Cannot take this anymore, I gotta, I gotta get outa here."
mother!
Audiences either love, hate, or love to hate Darren Aronofsky's mother!, a bizarre psychological
horror-drama about a married couple, their unwelcome house guests, and an emerging cult.
Shortly after release, Paramount doubled down on the film's divisive reception with a brand
new poster that championed mother! as "the most controversial movie in decades."
Naturally, that poster was also controversial, and again, Jennifer Lawrence was the victim
of violence.
The main image splits Lawrence's face in two, with one side beaten and battered.
Even people who liked the movie took issue with the new poster.
Critic Esther Zuckerman tweeted,
"I don't care what you think of the movie, the fact that a woman gets beat up in it shouldn't
be the selling point."
Paramount representatives have declined to comment on the poster's divided reaction,
although they have publicly stuck up for the film itself.
"You scared me"
Tomb Raider
Even if you don't play video games, you probably know Lara Croft and her infamous assets.
But in 2013, the Tomb Raider video games series reboot toned down Lara's exaggerated physical
attributes and ramped up her ferocious determination and peerless bow-and-arrow skills.
For the 2018 film adaptation, Alicia Vikander proved to be a strong fit for this version
of the character.
This is a Lara Croft who's cunning, smart, and tough.
While she's certainly not hard on the eyes, there's much more to her than her looks.
But you wouldn't know that from the poster, in which some poorly done photo manipulation
unnaturally elongates Vikander's neck, inviting comparisons to a velociraptor.
Ultimately, this wasn't a problem in the film itself, but in the lead-up to the release,
it was hard to think about anything else.