Approaching the midpoint of the year, it's time we ranked the best movie posters of 2023 so far. The past six months have seen some delights, and some horrors in film poster design, but a few a really stood out.
The movie posters below caught our attentions for different reasons. One made us feel nostalgic, some involved a clever, original concept or illusion and one was just refreshingly simple and effective (see our collection of some of our favourite poster designs for more inspiration).
The best movie posters of 2023
There have been a lot of complaints about movie posters becoming boring thanks to the ubiquity of the 'floating heads' design. But although it's getting harder to find inventive designs out there, every now and again, a mini-masterpiece emerges. Here's our pick of the best movie posters of 2023 so far.
01. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny poster
Top of our pick of the best movie posters of 2023 so far is the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny poster. This retro treat feels like a gift for fans of the original trilogy. Illustrated by Tony Stella, its painterly textures and earthy colours hark back to the classic posters for Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Temple of Doom (illustrated by Richard Amsel and Drew Struzan, respectively). The film is due for release on June 30.
02. John Wick 4 poster
John Wick 4 benefited from not one but a whole host of great movie posters. The main poster design featured a clever optical illusion. At first glance, it looked like a simple headshot character poster, but closer inspection revealed Wick's tie to be an hourglass filled with bullets. There's a nice Easter egg in the logo too, with the numeral IV highlighted in the initials JW. And on top of this, we were also treated to the John Wick 4 artists' series of 12 unique poster designs, each with a very different take on the movie.
03. Scream VI poster
Who'd have thought a subway map could be so scary? This Scream VI poster for social media is a guided tour of Ghostface's victims from the whole franchise. Each of coloured line on the 'map' represents one of the six films, with the 'stops' named after the victims. It ignited debate about the possible plot of Scream VI, but best of all, in a world of carbon-copy movie posters, it was refreshing to see something with an actual concept.
04. Dune: Part 2 poster
Simple but effective, and with no floating heads, the Dune: Part 2 poster shows Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides and Zendaya's Chani in front of a striking Arrakis sunset, whetting our appetite for the upcoming sequel, which is due for release on November 3.
05. Beef poster
Ok, so this is a Netflix series, not a film, but we had to include it as an honorary mention. This dark comedy is about angry people, and that's perfectly captured by the striking Beef poster design illustration, which leans on the gesture of road rage that triggers the show's downward spiral of anger and revenge. Amy (Ali Wong) and Danny (Steven Yeun) face off as finger puppets on raised middle fingers, reflecting how their rage ends up controlling their actions.
So those are the best. And the worst movie poster of 2023? We'd say strong contenders are The Little Mermaid and Ant-Man 3. We also enjoyed these 'very bad' French movie posters. But there's still plenty of time left for them to be topped.
