Trainspotting is probably one of our favourite British films, it took a topic of drug use and didn’t glamorise it at all! It also had an amazing soundtrack that went with its time of release! Then there was the line-up Trainspotting poster.
One of the things that it did outside of the film was breakdown it’s 5 characters from its poster, down into individual posters, so dependent on what bus stop you were waiting, you could be opposite one of the film characters.
I’m reminded of this, as Empire magazine have taken advantage of the forthcoming Suicide Squad movie character campaign to give their current issue multiple covers! That way a Jared Leto fan could get a Joker featured cover etc
It’s an idea that worked for them before as when X-Men: Days of future past came out, I specifically searched for the Jennifer Lawrence/Mystique cover, sure some fans would seek to get all the various covers!
It can be a great way to promote the film, we have seen it work well for Tim Burton films, Alice in Wonderland & Dark Shadows! Johnny Depp, will be popular for both, but an Anne Hathaway fan would prefer the individual white queen poster for Alice! An Eva Green fan would want her character poster for Dark Shadows etc.
Other films I recall using character profile posters are Marvel’s The Avengers; GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra; Star Trek: Into Darkness; Anchorman 2 and the Hunger Games which even included one for Buttercup, the Everdeen’s cat!
Animated films have used it well too, from individual monsters for Monsters University to individual characters for the Kung Fu Panda films! I specifically recall sharing the Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc one!
As with the croc character just mentioned, the individual posters can help saturate social media! Jared Leto shared his Suicide Squad character poster on his Facebook page & his followers of course, liked, shared & commented
Most recently 007 took advantage of this, using individual character posters to countdown the release of Spectre!
After the film release, it can help the DVD release, I specifically brought my Alice in Wonderland & Dark Shadows discs from a shop offering limited edition art cards of the character posters. Great for fans who no longer find the individual character images on postcards which I used to find in cinemas, although we can now print them off at home if really wanted!
Do you like films having individual character posters? Did a film you love, miss a trick by not doing it? Would character art cards influence how you would purchase the film!
We’d love to hear from you here at Barking Mad About Films!
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