Glossary of Movie Poster Terms

Rick's Movie.com is the world's #1 online Movie Poster retailer.

Poster and Movie Collectibles Terminology.
For more Details on the various movie poster sizes and movie collectibles terminology click on the links below or scroll down to browse through the descriptions.

To see a listing of the size abbreviations, used in the store, click here.

One Sheet Advance One Sheet Regular One Sheet Teaser One Sheet Character Advance One Sheet 2-Sheet 3-Sheet British Quads Heavy Stock Display Posters Color Still Sets Stills Lobby Card Sets Photobusters Pressbooks Presskits Foreign Posters Commercial & Personality Posters Fine Art Posters International Posters Limited Edition Prints Reissue (Rerelease) Reprint Reproduction.

One Sheet. A 27"x41" poster, usually printed on paper stock and usually folded. The one-sheet has always been the "standard" movie advertising poster size in the U.S. It is now virtually the only size printed. Recent years have seen variations of an inch or more in the dimensions of a one-sheet. This is especially true of some borderless ("full-bleed") posters, which may be 26"x40" or smaller.

Advance One Sheet. (Adv.) A 27"x41" poster, usually issued several months prior to the release of the movie. An Advance one-sheet may have entirely different artwork from the regular one-sheet, or it may use the same art with "Coming Soon" or a similar blurb printed across the bottom. Advance one-sheets may or may not have full credits and the film's rating.

Regular One Sheet. This term is usually applied when a one sheet with credits follows the release of an advance or teaser one sheet. Unless "Advance" or "Teaser" are applied, it is assumed that a one sheet has full credits.

Teaser One Sheet. This term is often used interchangeably with "Advance." All teaser posters are advances, but not all advances are teasers. The ghost symbol on the teasers for Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II is an example of the teaser format. A teaser poster will not have any credits and may not even have the film's title.

Character Advance Poster. Similar to "teasers". These posters are advance posters featuring a single character from an upcoming film. Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Avengers are recent examples of character advance promotions.

2-sheet. A 45"x59" poster also called a Subway Poster because of its use on small billboards in the New York subway. 2-sheets are printed on paper stock and can be folded or rolled when we receive them.

3-sheet. A 41"x81" poster printed on paper stock and always folded.

British Quads are horizontal posters approximately 40" wide by 30" high. (The exact dimensions can sometimes vary by an inch or two, depending on the title.) Quads can be printed on glossy or matte finish stock. The paper is about the same thickness as American one sheets. All Quads are Unfolded and are shipped in tubes.

Heavy Stock Display Posters.
The five poster sizes that follow are printed on heavier card stock and are shipped rolled unless the word "folds" appears after the listing. These posters were part of the standard mix of advertising material for most films released prior to 1985. Heavier paper and the fact that they are almost never folded, make these posters ideal for framing. Unfortunately, they are not available for films released after 1985.
14x22's are called Window Cards
14x36's are called Inserts
22x28's are called Half Sheets*
30x40's are called 30x40s
40x60's are called...you guessed it... 40x60s
* Note, half sheets are horizontal...wider than they are tall, thus they should more accurately be indicated as 28x22.

Color Still Sets. Color photos from a film printed on heavy card stock. These are priced by the set. the number of cards in a set (usually 8) is indicated in our listings. (See also description of Lobby Card Sets below).

Stills are 8"x10" black and white glossy photos from a film. Stills are priced by the set. (See also Presskits.)

Lobby Card Sets are printed in color on heavy card stock, measuring 11"x14'.These are also priced by the set. Some sets have photos measuring the entire 11x14 area. Others have 8x10 photos with the film's logo, credits, and/or additional artwork. A film's 11x14 may have the same scenes as the 8x10 set or entirely different ones. In the mid 1980's, the major film distributors began phasing out the printing of Lobby Card and Color Still sets. Today, none of the film distributors print these sets for distribution in the United States. Columbia, Tri-Star and Universal still print sets for some of their releases. These are printed in the Unites States, but intended for use overseas. Foreign Lobby Cards and Color Stills (British, German, Spanish, etc) are available on some titles.

Photobusters are large color photos of scenes from a movie, usually printed on glossy paper of medium weight. These are sold by the set. Some sets are 11"x14". Some are 16"x20". Still others consist of a variety of sizes. Photobuster sets don't appear very often. They are usually issued for films with major box office potential (eg. Star Wars, Aliens, etc.).

Pressbooks are used by theatres in the advertising and promotion of a film. These booklets vary in size, number of pages, and content. Some contain only ad slicks to be used in the past-up of newspaper ads. Others are more elaborate, containing full cast and productions notes and ideas for local promotions. Some large format pressbooks are folded in half when we receive them. Booklets containing only ad slicks are indicated by "ads only" after the listing. While most of our pressbooks are used, all are complete unless listed as "cut." Pressbooks for most recent films have become little more than giant "ad pads" various sizes of the same artwork stapled together in a booklet.

Presskits are used by the media in reviewing films. They usually contain production notes, biographical information on some cast and crew members, and black and white glossy stills for the movie. Our listings indicate the number of stills in the kit.

Foreign Posters. We try to stock British, French, Italian, and Belgian posters on as many titles as we can find. Availability is often sporadic. We are constantly looking for reliable suppliers of interesting movie material from these as well as other European countries, Japan, Latin America, etc.

Commercial and Personality Posters. These are mass produced licensed posters printed with a star's image or movie related artwork. Commercial posters come in a variety of sizes ranging from about 20x24 to 24x36 and larger. These posters often have outstanding graphics and are reasonably priced, however their value as collectibles is negligible.

Fine Art Posters. Printed on high quality paper with careful attention to detail, Fine Art Posters are sold in many art galleries and better quality custom frame shops. Since they are intended as pieces of frameable art, they are never folded.

International Posters. This term is used to describe posters that are printed in English, but intended for use in countries outside of North America. International posters may be printed in the United States or overseas.

Limited Edition Prints. This term describes a limited printing of a fine art poster. The publisher of the print specifies a limit of say 500 or 1000 and certifies that no more copies will be printed Some limited editions may also be signed and numbered by the artist.

Reissue (or Rerelease). These terms are used interchangeably. They describe the process whereby a film is formerly reintroduced or rereleased to the theatres. Disney reissues their classic animated films every 5 to 7 years.The artwork for a rerelease poster may be the same or different from the original (See reprint below.)
Reprint. A reprint is a poster that has been exactly duplicated in image, color, etc though it may vary slightly in size from the original. Reprints can be made using the same printing plates that were used for the original or by photographing the original poster and making new plates. British and French posters are often reprinted without any formal "rerelease" of the movie (see above).
Reproduction. This term is often used interchangeably with reprint. The term "reproduction" is most often used for the reprinting of very old posters. Since original printing plates for the older posters were destroyed long ago, photos of the old poster must be taken. Fold lines and other flaws in the original will be visible in the new reproduction. A reproduction poster may vary in size from the original.