Hundreds of Rare Movie Posters Expected to Fetch High Bids at Auction

Physical media is in its comeback era. 

From rising vinyl sales to eBay bidding wars over Blu-ray releases of Oscar-winning epics (we’re looking at you, Oppenheimer) pop culture fans are migrating away from the cloud, preferring instead to build up their entertainment libraries in real life. That trend towards the tangible extends to the nostalgic art that once covered the walls of many a Millennial’s teenage bedroom. If you’re a fan of movie posters, you may be interested in these rare collector’s items hitting the auction block on March 7 and 8th.

Film posters can be works of art—illustrations that summarize a film’s greatest strengths or translate an auteur director’s vision. Fans who fall in love with a franchise or a particular filmmaker’s style may collect them as a keepsake, a reminder of a moviegoing memory, or a decorative gem they can show off to friends. And sure, Marvel team-ups packed with A-list superheroes are fun, but those posters aren’t what most collectors are after. They’re much more interested in the hand-painted, intricately-designed artwork that emerged from the Golden Age of Hollywood. 

Next month, Propstore is hosting a collectible posters auction that features an eclectic lineup of some of the most sought-after movie posters from the past century. From a psychedelic homage to Stanley Kubrick’s genre-defining A Clockwork Orange (1972) to a visually-striking copy of 1931’s Frankenstein—any early film in Universal’s monster canon—there’s something for every kind of cinephile. 

Propstore’s U.S. director of posters Grey Smith described the items as more than just collectibles. In a press release, he stated that “each piece tells a story” and represents “the enduring legacy of classic filmmaking.” Because these pieces of art are so hard to find, they come with a hefty price tag. While the Frankenstein one sheet is estimated to sell for up to $250,000 (only seven or eight copies are known to exist, after all), posters for 1933’s King Kong, 1941’s Superman, and A Clockwork Orange clock in at a “reasonable” $15,000 to $40,000. If you’re open to relatively recent fare, a 1985 print advertising Back to the Future is estimated to sell for just $600.

Whatever your price point, there’s a sense of undeniable joy in owning a bit of film history—especially when it comes to physical posters, which can feel like a dying art in an age when trailers and social media campaigns are how many studios prefer to market their films. To take part in the live, online auction the second weekend of March, you can register to bid here.

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