Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Selling Movie Posters

This is topic Selling Movie Posters in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Trevor Key (Member # 3496) on 07-28-2006, 02:01 PM:

Does anyone know if it is legal to sell movie posters at a theatre.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-28-2006, 02:42 PM:

By the 'letter' of the law: no.

That said, I have NEVER heard of anyone that has got into trouble for selling or giving away/raffling/etc posters, standees, and other used non-trailer promotional materials.

I know of at least one mall with a plex that has nearby a 'Hollywood memorabilia' shop that sells vintage and current posters, press kits, autographed items, etc. and it doesn;t take a rocket scientist to figure out where they are getting their current posters from.

-Aaron

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 07-28-2006, 03:30 PM:

You won't get jack for posters. Banners are where the money is. Or so I have heard from other people that claim to have sold them. Technically posters, banners, trailers and anything else like that are property of its respective studio.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-28-2006, 05:24 PM:

Read the fine print on any Fox poster. That's the same policy employed by all studios.

But I know lots of places that sell'em for a dollar or give them away and like Aaron, have never heard of anyone getting in trouble.

Posted by Ross Oba (Member # 3433) on 07-29-2006, 04:08 AM:

If anyone has done a recent search on that famous auction site, the lenticular 3D poster of Monster House sold for around $200.

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 07-29-2006, 06:17 AM:

I do know of a certain person over here in Aust. that removed a poster of an unrelerased film and put it on the "famous action site"

In less than one day the respective studio was on the phone to the cinema concerned raising hell! and they knew the mans full name and the cinema he worked at, some very quick detective work was done on there part considering the auction site only a code name and hotmail addy for the seller.

I think one should be carefull. The only advertising stuff that leaves here goes either into recylying or is donated to schools kindy's or childrens hospital type situations.

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 07-29-2006, 01:16 PM:

I once had a general manager that made a sizeable second income selling promotional materials online and "under the table" to theatre patrons. He used the scam of selling a basically worthless item and saying the promotional material was a "free gift" (ie. claiming he wasn't actually selling the poster, pin, whatever). Despite this supposed loophole, he was regularly having to change his online sales account and cover his tracks, as the studios came after him.

Even though I've never heard of anyone being prosecuted for selling posters, I wouldn't want to risk my job or studio relations over a poster.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 07-29-2006, 02:43 PM:

I tried to sell some posters at a rather profitable yard sale two years ago. None sold. By the end of the day I was willing to get rid of all 20 just for $1.00 and still nobody was interested.

Had a manager about 15 years ago who made some good money selling standees. I remember having to tear appart Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and The Rocketeer and he was adamant not one flap or hinge was to be ripped - NOT ONE! [uhoh]

Posted by Trevor Key (Member # 3496) on 07-30-2006, 08:05 PM:

Thanks for the Advice guys!

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 07-31-2006, 08:56 PM:

Technically the promotional material belongs to the distributor. I think only Lucasfilm are fussy about wanting posters back for obvious reasons. Where I used to work we got our pick of the posters if the run had finished or we were very unlikely to get the film.

Posted by Paul Van Dusen (Member # 3640) on 08-01-2006, 03:06 PM:

We sell our old posters for $5 a pop and put the money in our Children's Miricle Network Donations. It's our little way of getting ahead of the other Carmike's in our district when they have their annual fundraiser.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 08-01-2006, 03:17 PM:

Hey Trevor,

When I ran the projectors at the Athena Theatre during college in the mid 1970's, it was still a single screen 1200 seat theatre. In one of the rooms under the stage there were hundreds of movie posters going back to the early 1930's. While I was visiting friends in Athens in the early 1980's, I stopped back at the Athena to see if the owner would sell them all to me. Unfortunately, I found out that a water pipe had broken in that room which went undiscovered for several weeks. All the posters had been destroyed and were thrown out earlier that year. Served me right for procratinating. At todays prices, they would have been worth several hundred thousand dollars.

For older posters, you mighnt' want to check out the movie poster forum.

Posted by Andrew Peter Chobaniuk (Member # 3886) on 09-12-2006, 06:49 AM:

i have about 200 posters from the past 10 years

and damn, $200 i should have called that poster!

poster policy at our theatre is they go to the first staff member that calls them (or the staff member with the poster case key, me! [beer]

) MUAHAHAAHA