Box Art

[AndyC]

One thing that kind of puzzles me is when a movie is re-released on video and the original, sharp-looking box art (usually the poster from theatrical release) is replaced with something that doesn't look as good. Some of these things look like somebody's kid, using his home PC, slapped together a still from the movie with a title in some boring font.

Why is this done? Surely, the original poster art and title graphics are going to be more recognizable and more appealing on the shelf than some half-assed cover design that somebody threw together.

Does anybody know the reason for this?

[Steven Millan]

                Thanks for bringing this subject up,Andy,for it also heavily annoys me whenever a certain movie's original poster gets replaced by a more chintzier one for the video/DVD release(a move that's been done since 1986).
                  They may be doing this to attract more people who haven't seen the movie when it was originally released,but it just only cheapens the movie's appeal when doing this tacky practice. And,have you noticed that they only use a full-blown photo,instead of airblown artwork,to create a movie poster today?Sure,the poster art for many movies may been been cheesy at times,but that what was the posters' appeal in the first place,giving you that feeling that this will be a fun movie to watch and thoughly enjoy,which today's posters don't unfortunately do(so much for today's mainstream commercial movies).
                   'Nuff said on this subject here.

[Private Joker]

Any prime examples that annoy you most of all?

[systemcr4sh]

Example:

Army Of Darkness: I have the VHS version with ash standing with the girl on his leg and his chainsaw and all the monsters etc around him. Kick ass cover. My friend has the s**t ass one with evilash's face (post shotgun wound) right up on the front 'screaming'. f**king s**t ass cover. it looks like it was slapped together in MSPAINT or something. Thats probably the only one I can think of.

-dan

[Private Joker]

Is that the one that says on it "Trapped in time.  Surrounded by Evil.  Low on gas."?

[mr. henry]

and  i really hate it too when they slap the same cheap-ass type stuff onto books after movies come out too.

[Flangepart]

It would have to be. It was one funny cover, that lived up to the attitude of the movie.

[Flangepart]

And now that i think about it, did any of you catch the special, i think on TCM, about the artest that did some of those classic monster posters? Brown was his name i think, and his stuff was great.

[J.R.]

I think the series that most embodies this practice is Romero's dead films. Every single DVD release of these zombie masterpieces has seriously *weak* art. In fact, I honestly believe I could reproduce the cover of NOTLD: Millennium Edition on my Paint program. I own the Elite disc released in '98 and it just has a pretty lame painting of the ghoul girl with a cheesy green font. Even the downright classic Dawn Of The Dead poster art was scrapped in favor of a closeup of a zombie's face.

[systemcr4sh]

howabout when a hit movie comes out they slap stickers on old movies they were in that say "Starring _____ from the hit _________[enter a new movie they are in]"

I saw this in the store, On the box for "Friday" they had "Starring chris tucker from rush hour!" slapped on there.

Ouch

-Dan

[Mofo Rising]

Well, if you value your sanity, do NOT look at the DVD cover art for REAL GENIUS.

Seriously.

[Gerry]

Mofo Rising wrote:
>
> Well, if you value your sanity, do NOT look at the DVD
> cover art for REAL GENIUS.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000065U1Q.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">New DVD Cover Art


http://home.megapass.co.kr/~hkelec/poster/p002.jpg">Original Poster Art

[Chadzilla]

eVilk from thel deptjhs p khell and no man r thing can see it andla live sane for his yearsa brrhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaaaahhhhhhhhhh MOMMMY

[Private Joker]

MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!! OLLOLOOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLOOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL I CAT'N STPO LAFFIGN!!!!!!!!!!! LOLLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  TEH CUHVAR SI TEH SUX!!!!!!!!!!  GDO HEPL ME!!!! lollololollolo

[No Nukes, the Satanic Pikachu]

There may be several reasons.

Situation #1.) The original montage, painting, or photograph upon which the original poster was based may have become damaged, worn, or destroyed and the distributors had to make a makeshift susbstitute (a copy of the poster, or a new image.)

Situation #2.) The person who made the poster was a "commision" artist and may have copyrighted the image for theactrical use only. The distribtors must them pay him/her to use it for use in the VHS and DVD box art.

Situation #3.) The distributors may think that the movie poster dosen't "translate" well or becomes confusing when reduced to the size of a DVD cover and may not use it.

Situation #4.) The distributors may see parts of certain posters as innaropriate to the general public (it's happened, trsut me) and modifies the video cover accordingly.

Situation #5.) Some video "piraters" distribute VHS copies around the movie's release and videotape the movie right inside the theater. They use the movie poster as the cover of the pirated video. The "different cover" ploy probably evolved as a way to deter the camcorder-pirates as customers could easily tell the real movie from a low-quality pirate tape.