LARGE Movie Posters?

July 7, 2008 12:58 PM

Where can I purchase large movie posters (41"x81")?

After watching Play it Again, Sam last night, I felt compelled to buy some of those huge movie posters that decorate the apartment of Woody Allen's character. After a bit of research it seems I'm looking for "3-sheet" or 41"x81" versions. Are there any particular online purveyors that the hivemind can recommend? I'd love a place that stocks 60s-70s movies, but I really am open to any decade.

posted by kepano to shopping (7 comments total)

A cheaper option (or if you can't find an online store) would be the Rasterbator
posted by ddaavviidd at 1:13 PM on July 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

eBay has a good number, but they don't seem cheap.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 1:23 PM on July 7, 2008

eBay's largest movie poster seller quit and launched his own auction site for movie posters. The layout's not the greatest (like I can talk), but it works and he's a reputable guy.

Disclosure: I've never met the guy, but he and my company are both members of the same trade organization for online sellers. (He's a seller; we're a vendor to the sellers, but not in his vertical.)
posted by sachinag at 2:51 PM on July 7, 2008

If you can't find what you're looking for online, try your local video stores. I worked at a mom-and-pop video store several years ago and we received huge posters for almost every movie that came in (even old, classic movies that were being re-released). We didn't have enough room for all of them on the walls, and we ended up with quite a huge stockpile of them rolled up in our storeroom. One day the owner decided to sell them all for a couple of dollars each and they flew out the door.
posted by amyms at 7:57 PM on July 7, 2008

I am a recent Rasterbator. I made a 4'x5' poster of Miles Davis to practice for my big project, which was a poster my friends and I hung in our school as a prank. Here are couple of tips.

1. Staples. After Rasterbating your image, go to Staples or Kinko's or something and pay them to print the PDF for you. It will be fairly cheap, the paper quality will be better, the quality of the printing itself will be better, and you will not use all of your ink. Miles Davis came out a little badly, which is why I practiced in the first place, and also used a cartridge of ink. The printing will pay for itself.

2. This will take a lot of time. Do not hurry. I assembled Miles by myself in my bedroom in about 3 hours. He looks pretty bad. I like the final product, but the second poster is so much better. That's because in addition to outsourcing the printing I built it with the help of two friends over 5 hours.

3. I assembled both of them with clear packaging tape. I laid the tape sticky-side up on the work area and then laid one sheet of paper onto it, ink-side up. Then, carefully, I placed whatever the next piece of paper was onto the tape being sure to align the ink. This is the time consuming part.

4. Unless you plan on hanging the poster in a frame or pinning it to the wall, the least damaging way that we thought of to display the posters was with sticky tack.

5. Here's a picture of the second poster, which is obviously of Chairman Mao.

Basically, if you can afford a poster and can find a poster you like, the Rasterbator is probably too much work, but if you're a cheap student wanting to have some fun and blow an afternoon, it's highly recommended.
posted by papayaninja at 8:25 PM on July 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans
posted by tellurian at 9:33 PM on July 7, 2008

These were all good suggestions but I ended up going to a flea market in Paris (St. Ouen) and found what I was looking for. 3-sheet posters do tend to be over my budget though so I might eventually try rasterbating some high-quality scans if I can find them.
posted by kepano at 7:43 AM on July 21, 2008