Movie posters have been around since the silent era. When films were first made, there was no concept or idea how to make money with them until someone hit upon the idea of taking the projector on the road and charging admission to an audience. The original plan was to sell projectors and film prints as a home movie entertainment system.

While this proved impractical due to the significant costs, it was the same model that would be applied to the DVD market many years later. Now, there is no way to let an audience know when a movie was coming to a theater or what a particular move was about. So, the vintage posters that first utilized the concept of poster advertisements for films turned out to be wildly successful and set the stage for the way business would be conducted for the next 100 years.

The Classics

If there were any vintage posters from this era that would be considered prized by collectors, it would be the extremely rare posters that still remain in existence from films that are now considered classics. The rarity, of course, refers to original vintage posters and not movie poster reproductions that can be purchased anywhere.

Of the classic film vintage posters, among the most prized vintage posters that collectors desire include King Kong, Frankenstein, Casablanca, and Gone with the Wind. These films’ posters are in high demand because these vintage posters are the posters of four of the most famous, most successful and most influential films of all time.

What some might find surprising, is that Casablanca drew the least amount of money at the box office when it was released, pulling in a little over $2 million. Frankenstein and King Kong pulled in about $5 million each, whereas Gone with the Wind grossed around $39 Million.

All of these films have vintage posters that collectors prize with a passion. When offered up for auction, they can commandeer prices that are quite high drawing several thousands of dollars in bids. Needless to say, when purchased they are usually properly stored away or, at minimum, placed in an expensive and durable frame.

While most of us can not afford these vintage posters in their original form, they all look kind of cool in reproductions. Avid film fans will probably keep the reproductions of these films in circulation for years and collectors of vintage posters will also keep the auction prices very high.