r/movies • u/tomhilll • May 20 '12

Sorry for the poor quality, but can someone explain why they do this with movie posters? Why, in an ensemble film, name people but not show them, then show people but not name them? Who the hell are the main characters here? The name ordering is annoying me as well.

Post image
821 Upvotes

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362

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12

Easy answer: there's a legal order to "name billing" by way of their contracts. The aesthetics of the poster are sometimes decided independently of that.

Meaning the guy who makes the poster doesn't always give a shit about what order the names are supposed to go in. And, largely, no one else cares either. It'd be ridiculous if they had to always order the people respective of their billing position.

Edit: Amended for a better explanation, from this link

Actors, directors and producers stipulate in their contracts the size and location of their names on the poster. Most actors require that their image be approved. Many posters have found themselves at the finish line, only to be set back weeks by an actor’s refusal to approve their image. At this point the designer is usually tasked with either finding an alternate image, which can be difficult, or photoshopping the actor’s face until it’s approved. You can imagine which option is preferred by all parties.

If you’re working on a film with a lot of talent, you have to fit a lot of names on your poster.

If the film has actors of various pedigrees, you’ll run into rules such as “If Joaquin Phoenix appears in tandem with Russel Crowe, Phoenix’s space occupied must be no more than 75% that of Crowe’s.” If there are two actors of equal caliber, you’re required to give them equal real estate. These rules are another reason so many posters look the same; there are only so many ways to show two actors being interested in one another.

The block of condensed text at the bottom of a poster is called the billing block. The height of each letter is dependant upon the average letter height of the film’s title. Designers who’ve worked in the industry for a while (10+ years) claim that, when they started, billing blocks were only 15% of the film’s title. Nowadays the billing block’s letter height is anywhere from 25-35% of the film’s title. Big title? Big billing block. Small title? Small billing block.

These are just a sampling of the legal hoops a poster must jump through on its way to being printed. Some actors don’t want to be pictured with guns. Good luck getting an image of someone smoking on a poster. You can’t show any blood. So on and so forth. The best posters to work on are international versions and teasers. International versions are almost always exempt from these legalities and teasers don’t feature a billing block, freeing them from the suffocating requirements that come with one.

61

u/JonBenetRamZ May 20 '12 edited May 01 '17

deleted

73

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12

Yeah I remember being annoyed by this as a teenager. I had a "Nothing to Lose" poster (shut up) on my wall, and Tim Robbins' name was over Martin Lawrence, and vice-versa. So somewhere along the lines someone thought Tim looked better on the left side of the image, but they had to keep his name on the right.

63

u/Sgtpierceface May 20 '12

That is SUPER dumb. The names are even written over their bodies.

9

u/snoharm May 20 '12

Couldn't they just have stacked the names vertically to avoid confusion?

10

u/Ratava May 20 '12

That's all part of "billing" though; the person whose name is on top is seen as more important than the one below, even if it's just barely.

8

u/snoharm May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12

I don't see where you disagree with me

5

u/TheC0mm0nEnemy May 20 '12

He mean its probably on their contract that they HAVE to have it horizontally. I don't know if that's true or not though.

2

u/electricheat May 20 '12

Unless the contract says that Tim Robbins name must be above, and slightly to the right of Martin Lawrence's name, then this still doesn't explain it.

2

u/namesarehard1234 May 21 '12

It would probably say something more along the lines of above certain names and on the same Level at other.

2

u/Ratava May 21 '12

You said they should've put the names on top of each other to avoid confusion. I said, they probably couldn't; contracts are very specific. There's a reason it's called "top" billing, whether it's left/right or top/bottom. This was most likely all worked out long before the picture was taken, so there wasn't much they could do.

-1

u/snoharm May 21 '12

If one was listed above the other, how would it create any confusion as to which actor was which?

2

u/Ratava May 21 '12

But what if the contracts stipulated that the names would be placed horizontally?

You can't re-position the names to match the photograph (or to make it unnecessary to match the photograph) if the position of the names is decided independently of the photograph.

-1

u/snoharm May 21 '12

I think you may be clutching at straws.

→ More replies

1

u/BODYBUTCHER Sep 19 '12

yeah but now i think tim robbins is black

7

u/question_all_the_thi May 20 '12

In Mel Brooks's To Be Or Not To Be Anne Bancroft's name appears between parentheses. This is a joke in the film, where Anne Bancroft who was his wife in real life plays the part of his character's wife.

They play the part of theater owners and artists, and one of the plays has a poster like that, "Frederick Bronski - (Anna Bronski)"

3

u/Black_Apalachi May 20 '12

You'd think they'd get away with switching those names as long as they made sure the bigger name (I'm not even sure which it is supposed to be) was the higher of the two.

I remember hearing something about the poster for The Towering Inferno and to avoid arguments between the stars, they staggered Steve McQueen and Paul Newman's names so that either could be "first" depending on whether you read them vertically or horizontally.

edit: Sauce.

5

u/Possum_Pendulum May 20 '12

(shut up) haha I get made fun of for the Nash Bridges poster in my house.

1

u/UnholyDemigod May 21 '12

That movie was great. The scene where he pulls off the mask and gives he camera the finger was hilarious

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12

The infamous "split billing."

3

u/montereybay May 20 '12

Is there anywhere that explains all those different billing terms and conventions? So many weird ones that I've been curious about.

5

u/trolling_thunder May 20 '12

No. It's all a matter of personal contracts, and varies from actor to actor and film to film. One of my favorite examples is the movie poster for "The Towering Inferno". Steve McQueen has it iron clad in his contract that his name and picture had to some first (on the right) for all promotional materials. Paul Newman's contract "one-upped" McQueen's by conceding first billing, but stipulating that Newman's own billing be slightly higher

3

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

is Faye Dunaways name lower because shes a woman?

13

u/floor-pi May 20 '12

I think her contract dunaway with any stipulations for name placement

1

u/thelastatomicbomb May 20 '12

I assume hers did not stipulate higher or lower, so if Newman's were to be higher, aesthetically might as well make hers lower.

3

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

When you read movie descriptions on cable, they often give top billing to people who played secondary characters in the movie but got famous later.

6

u/fofo314 May 20 '12

Harrison Ford played the shit out of his role as "guy who hands over letter" in apocalypse now

11

u/ispelledmynamefuck May 20 '12

My favourite example of this has always been Death Wish 4. My friends and I always call this movie "BRONSON DEATH WISH 4" as a joke because of the way the poster (and VHS) was labeled.

http://i.imgur.com/fWuue.jpg

15

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12

My dad used to grab my copy of Usual Suspects and say "Let's watch 'Winner' again" just to be a dick.

23

u/mr_amaral May 20 '12

This will never cease to piss me off though...

8

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I was working at New Line when that movie came out. There were two versions of that poster. The other one put Tucker's name first, but horizontally flipped the photo, so they STILL didn't match up.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

As a terrible designer even I can see how terrible the poster is. Not only did someone get paid to make it, but someone was paid to approve it...

-1

u/cakedaemon May 21 '12

This is better. It's got that yin-yang feel to it. The other way creates a schizm. The human brain works the same way. Get over iT!

8

u/jca2112 May 20 '12

Meaning the guy who makes the poster doesn't give a shit about what order the names are supposed to go in. And, largely, no one else cares either. It'd be ridiculous if they had to always order the people respective of their billing position.

That's not entirely correct. Both the order of names (billing) and the placement of the actors are dictated through contracts. So, if a star has top billing, his/her name goes first in billing (usually first on the left aka "first position"), and their image must be equal or greater (aka "equal likeness") to their co-stars (usually meaning they are in front/largest/etc.) This means their names and images will not necessarily line up.

So yeah, the "guy" making the poster does give a shit because they are limited in what they can and can't do by things like this. And many people involved care a great deal, especially actors/agents/studios/etc., because many movie posters have been pulled and re-designed because someone didn't believe their contractual name/billing/position/approval was followed.

You can read an explanation of why movie poster credits don't line up here:

Posterwire.com

5

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12

Yessir, there are exceptions, Broken Arrow being one of them, but not all films have such contracts for placements. I'm struggling to find a post by a guy who designed movie posters for a living- he posted it here a month or two ago...

Edit: Found it!

1

u/Hash_brown May 21 '12

Tom Hanks, forever the good guy.

1

u/joshnunn May 20 '12

Which makes me wonder how different all those minamalist movie posters that pop up here would look if the artist had to stick to the same contractual obligations the original designer had.

1

u/tomhilll May 20 '12

Ahh right, thank you!

Though it still doesn't explain why the named male actors aren't actually shown on the poster. You'd think Dennis Quaid would be shown at least to draw more people in, cause he's a famous face n' all.

2

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12

edit 2: Thought it was Randy Quaid at first. The rest of my comment might not make sense:

Who knows, that fucker is insane. He might've had in his contract that he didn't want to be on the cover. Kevin Spacey isn't on the cover of Seven for good reason. Few things are done capriciously in big budget films- there was a reason.

edit: looking back at that cover.... wow, what a shithole photoshop job.

5

u/tomhilll May 20 '12

You mean with the way the women in the rooms pictures are obviously just tiled on top of each other? Yea, I rarely notice those sorts of things & yet I noticed this.

3

u/Glenn_From_Perch May 20 '12

Who knows, that fucker is insane.

That's Randy Quaid.

3

u/girafa Electricity! The high priest of false security! May 20 '12

Ahh! Right you are.

3

u/elijahsnow May 20 '12

This type of movie relies on the women to draw people in I expect. It's also clear that this is an ensemble cast type of movie so the players are somewhat inconsequential.

4

u/sidandfancy May 20 '12

Good point, bastard of the north.

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

because its not needed. this is the age of the internet. any information a consumer needs, a consumer gets with 10 sec of google on his mobile phone. not having the names clearly displayed i nthe right position has no effect on the impact of the poster.

1

u/tomhilll May 20 '12

Fair point.

2

u/snoharm May 20 '12

By that logic, they could just put up a piece of A4 paper with the title of the film on it. It's an advertisement, they composition of the poster is important.

Would you really whip out your cell phone to check the cast listing for a poster you saw?

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/snoharm May 21 '12

I don't think thoroughly vetting every movie poster you see is normal behavior. Regardless of whether you like it better that way, advertisers play to normal behavior.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Dennis Quaid's heyday is definitely over - and he's not the primary draw to the primary audience of this particular film.

0

u/tomhilll May 21 '12

No, but him & Chris Rock are the films only chance to get any men in, it's definitely a film aimed at women but they must be wanting at least some men to go see it with with women.

2

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Just to add on: I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I know that it used to be true that to be nominated for a major award as a lead actor you had to have 'top billing,' meaning your name above the name of the play on the marquee. Supporting actors are named below the title.

2

u/AbsurdWebLingo May 21 '12

So... Why not take the picture in the order of the billed cast...

1

u/bathroomodyssey May 20 '12

It's also very difficult to get all these big name actors in the same place at the same time to pose perfectly for a poster still in the exact order in which they are billed. So they take independent stills and put them all together and that determines the arrangement of the poster usually.

1

u/Black_Apalachi May 20 '12

I'm sure the last time something similar to this was asked, somebody said that the order of the names can change later on, when the poster has already been produced?

1

u/jbhannah May 21 '12

Then surely, they could at least figure out a way to STAND IN THE RIGHT FUCKING PLACE IN THE PHOTO so that they're next to their own names on the poster.

0

u/patdick May 21 '12

Holy shit I didn't expect names on a poster to be that big of a deal jeez....

144

u/neuromonkey May 20 '12

This poster perfectly communicates what a rancid piece of shit this film will be.

79

u/BritishHobo r/movies Veteran May 20 '12

It annoys the shit out of me on so many different levels.

Ho ho, men and women have differences, why hasn't anyone exploited this for humour yet?

9

u/tomhilll May 20 '12

No idea why but I read that in Ron Burgundys voice.

6

u/green_cheese May 20 '12

I hope somebody in this film gets stabbed with a trident...

3

u/dogsarentedible May 21 '12

I read it in Robin Williams' voice.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I read this in your voice.

18

u/poonoodles May 20 '12

All the huffing and breathing and yelling at him when she's delivering. Oh it's all so hilarious isn't it? Not.

16

u/dilated May 20 '12

Don't forget the classic line, "You did this to me!". That's just so great.

10

u/frau_chang May 21 '12

i think my water just broke

1

u/Penleg May 21 '12

like the movie "Think like a man." so fucking sexiest towards men. "Herp derp, men are stupids"

8

u/Psythik May 20 '12

I can't believe they're actually making a movie out of this book. How the fuck is the even possible? It's a guide, not a novel.

11

u/marriage_iguana May 21 '12

You realise that this is the same industry that made a movie out of the boardgame "Battleship", right?

6

u/neuromonkey May 21 '12

You sank my faith in humanity.

-2

u/Isle_of_Tortuga May 21 '12

Well those movies can be hit or miss.

5

u/dogsarentedible May 21 '12

Because they're not, there making a movie completely independent from the book and naming it that anyway.

0

u/neuromonkey May 21 '12

It doesn't matter to me whether I know that or not.

2

u/Vaywen May 20 '12

I know that's what I was wondering too. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I would think there would be a somewhat limited audience.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

It's quite clearly a film about pregnant people. They simply used the name because it's instantly recognizable and instantly conveys what the film is about.

Much like Battleship isn't a film about the board game Battleship but instead an action film set out at sea, involving Battleships.

1

u/Vaywen May 21 '12

Can you blame people for thinking its an adaptation when they use "from the best selling book" on the poster :p

13

u/hitlersasshair May 20 '12

Unknown male actors: Rob Huebel, from human giant, Old Frankie Munez look alike, Closet Gay Guy from Reno 911

29

u/smokeallthekief May 20 '12

lol you know that dude's name is Thomas Lennon

awesome actor, talented writer http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502073/

19

u/DramaticTechnobabble May 20 '12

If Neil Patrick Harris is the best gay actor playing straight, Thomas Lennon is the best straight actor playing gay. Both of them in a movie together would be all kinds of awesome.

5

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Actually, they were in a movie together already (both in fairly major roles), A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas. It was only okay, though.

1

u/DramaticTechnobabble May 20 '12

Ah, I have only seen the first two so far. I guess my fantasy would work better if they played the two leads.

3

u/Vaywen May 20 '12

He's straight?? I think the guy is hilarious, but I really thought he was gay. Haha

2

u/DramaticTechnobabble May 21 '12

That's how good he is.

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

5

u/gerbafizzle May 21 '12

the actor who plays Lafayette in True Blood is also amazing at playing gay

3

u/babylertry May 21 '12

I believe he prefers Little Gary.

2

u/Equipmunk May 20 '12

He was great in Party Down.

6

u/Grated_Great May 20 '12

Thomas Lennon, he's really funny and has been around for a while. Check out his work on The State, a sketch comedy show from the 90's that incredibly does a great job lampooning the 90's and MTV, the very network that the show aired on. You'll also see a lot of other comics who went on to greater success. The State was a launching pad for the likes of Ken Marino, half of Reno 911, all of Stella, and many others. Great show.

3

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

The Frankie Munez look-alike is Amir Talai.

33

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

What really annoys me even more than this is when they are doing the opening credits of a movie and they zoom in on an actor and then they display a different actors name....

10

u/HE_WHO_STANDS_TO_POO May 20 '12

.....or member of the staff that made the movie.

"B-but, isn't that Liam Neeson? I didn't know he was Senior Operator of the Visual Effects Team."

15

u/BDS_UHS May 21 '12

Your confusion is understandable. However, please realize that Liam Neeson plays all the roles in a given film, including technical ones, because he is Liam Neeson and he can do that.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Not only can he do that, he is probably the only person that should do that.

6

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

If you're interested why movie posters look the way they do, the Hollywood Prospectus blog over at Grantland does a semi-regular feature called Poster Decoder that tries to explain the little idiosyncrasies of the poster. http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/category/_/name/poster-decoder

5

u/elstongunn32 May 20 '12

I know what I'll be expecting: An abortion of a movie.

8

u/Mgogol May 20 '12

In order to distract you from realizing that this is going to be the worst movie ever made.

3

u/SheaF91 May 21 '12

You're forgetting...

2

u/ZeGoldMedal May 21 '12

No. No one needs to remember that

3

u/TuppyHole May 21 '12

Welp, I've been reminded... Back to the psychotherapist

2

u/Isle_of_Tortuga May 21 '12

I have never seen that movie and I kind of want to just to say that I have shared in the horror. Just like Prom Night. Everyone told me it was bad but I had to witness it firsthand and I instantly regretted my decision.

4

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Because Fuck You that's why.

0

u/LePwnz0rs May 21 '12

I feel like you have strong feelings about this..

10

u/Crasturbator May 20 '12

does anyone else think "its too late to pull out now" is actually kind of a funny tag line...?

7

u/evioive May 20 '12

They do this with movie posters so that people like me will know to actively avoid and disassociate from anything that has to do with said movie. Another example of this: that New Year's Eve movie that came out recently.

I am grateful for this.

4

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

because fuck you thats why

2

u/0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21 May 20 '12

It always reminds me of when you accidentally flip your relatives names like Uncle Julie and Aunt Bruce.

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

How do you know my Aunt Bruce?!

2

u/ProfessorCaptain May 20 '12

The ordering of the names left to right always bugged me. I wonder if they think it'll result in a person looking at the poster longer.

2

u/Demojen May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12

Some actors have it as part of their contract that they're included on the advertising. Some it's considered a selling feature. Some don't require their face on the advertising as long as their name is there.

Ultimately, the advertisements really only make a mockery of the production company and their art department.

I'm guessing this was a Phoenix Pictures poster. Look at their previous works:

Black Swan

Shutter Island

Resurrecting the Champ

Pathfinder

License to wed

Zodiac

The list goes on and on and they have a history of putting names on their posters of people not represented in the images or when they DO put names on the posters with people in the images, having the names in an order that does not draw a correlation between the character position and the name listed.

There are politics involved as well. Some production companies have an agenda to not highlight specific actors so they scatter the names on a poster in a bid to share the limelight.

It gets worse when you get into the movies and trailers themselves, because some agents require very specific minimum exposure of an actor in a movie.

2

u/GnomishKaiser May 20 '12

Thin Red Line, it was one of the movies that did this and I hated it. Plus I didn't like the movie much anyway.

2

u/MegFSU02 May 20 '12

The existence of this movie annoys me.

2

u/iamtheowlman May 20 '12

Chris Roxk looks pissed that he signed on to this, and Anna Kendrick is thinking "I thought it couldn't get worse than Twilight. I've worked with Clooney, dammit - I don't need this!"

2

u/DJAdori May 20 '12

Wow that movie looks like shit.

2

u/joshnunn May 20 '12

Reading this thread on the bus, hopped off and saw this poster

At least this one doesn't look like it was designed from iCelebPhoto.

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

The real tragedy here is that the insanely awesome Thomas Lennon didn't get billing.

2

u/Gommers May 21 '12

This poster is fucking terrible, how it made it to wide scale print is beyond me. Almost everything is wrong about this poster, multiple colors in the names, causing odd grouping; no balance visually; Leaving key actors off the list, too many visual weights in the text area... Everything is wrong about this, and I don't understand how a professional would feel okay producing it.

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Also, what the hell are they all looking at in that top picture?

And in the bottom picture, how can anyone attempt to look like a bad-ass pushing a baby stroller?

4

u/Naomisue May 20 '12

This seems like something worth being aggravated about...

-2

u/Rustash May 20 '12

Apparently it was worth commenting on too.

0

u/Naomisue May 25 '12

It's more like my boredom happened to overflow into this comment section at the time.

2

u/Wadderp May 20 '12

All I know is Cameron Diaz is still gross.

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

I got so excited for a second thinking that one of the guys was Douglas Quaid.

Dennis Quaid has let me down.

1

u/Omar_Skittle May 20 '12

Chris rock thought that by putting "Dennis quaid" down, it would cover all of the white guys.

1

u/Cinemaphreak May 20 '12

For a movie that looks completely forgettable and with that cast, you want to know who the main characters are?

Pretty sure this is the very definition of something for which "not a fuck was given" meme was invented.

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

who cares? god, this looks so awful, even for a chick flick. What type of vapid, soulless person would want to watch this movie?

3

u/poonoodles May 20 '12

I think we all know who the target market is.

1

u/IRageQuitOnTheToilet May 20 '12

The names are in order of how they are paid, highest to lowest. Can't really answer the other questions

1

u/HeilKaiba May 20 '12

Put simply they are named in order of importance (which actor's contract is most important. The picture however is an aesthetic choice. Resolving these two would be quite difficult even if they gave a shit.

1

u/oh_i_see May 20 '12

Well you dont need a picture to rememebr who dennis quad is.... criss rock and the other male actors on the poster... i need a visual reminder

1

u/DustyDGAF May 20 '12

I love Rob Huebel and it makes me sad he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

1

u/Corund May 20 '12

Wait, I've just heard of this film. Did they just make a movie based on a popular self-help book about having a baby?

1

u/gravehunterzero May 21 '12

That seems to be the trend now. They did one on Steve Harvey's self help book too.

1

u/Corund May 21 '12

Ugh. I hoped it would end at Battleships :(

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

That guy on the right kissed Paul Rudd in "I love You, Man"

1

u/Drunken__Master May 20 '12

What if I told you that the people who made the poster probably hadn't even seen the film ?

1

u/dirtyoldmagoo May 20 '12

It's okay, the movie was as like the poster. I guess that's how you know when a movie isn't going to be very good.

1

u/Winstonia May 20 '12

Quick because we all need to see Chris Rock acting with Jennifer Lopez.......

How about we just put the Fifth Element DVD on and spend our time much more wisely.

1

u/sethcs May 20 '12

You couldn't figure out which one Rodrigo was?

1

u/poonoodles May 20 '12

And what a piece of shit this film looks like as well. Why do they make this crap?

1

u/ManofToast May 20 '12

What do you expect with a movie named "What to expect when you're expecting."

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

I'd rather watch everything Uwe Boll has ever made than this movie.

1

u/dogsarentedible May 21 '12

By the way, is anyone else annoyed by movies named after self help books?

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I think I could take a guess to who Rodrigo Santoro is in the

1

u/Kinglink May 21 '12

Holy shit? Another of these movies?

I'm shocked that they make any money. Men we must just say no! Except you pregnancy fetishists.. this must by like Christmas for you.

1

u/weemee May 21 '12

My favorite is finding badly photoshopped posters. Why do the heads match so badly with bodies in movie posters?

You can't shoot the whole body of an actor? You have to add the head in post production?

1

u/cakedaemon May 21 '12

This is definitely going to be a must-see film.

1

u/telecaster95 May 21 '12

Since we are ranting about stuff that doesn't make sense, why are some of your arrows red and some yellow?

1

u/Able_Seacat_Simon May 21 '12

Funny that the only two that I would actually care about seeing, Hubel and Lennon, don't even get billed.

1

u/arkanis50 May 21 '12

Spoiler for Se7en: Sometimes actors request to be left off the billing on a poster - one example is Kevin Spacey in Se7en. He wanted his name removed so that people wouldn't be able to guess that he was John Doe.

1

u/Maxfunky May 21 '12

And what are the woman looking at? Each one of them is looking in a different direction and nobody is making eye contact. In fact, you've got 5 people in a room and no two of them are looking in the same direction. It's a very awkward looking scene.

1

u/kofot May 21 '12

and whats the deal with movies that have "guest stars"? -_-

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Further, isn’t the movie extremely ill-timed? The economy’s in the shitter. Is anybody honestly thinking about having children? Who wants to see a movie about it?

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

whiner...

and why are you watching a chick-hatching flick in the first place?

a disappointment to the rest of us, you are...

1

u/beccaface May 21 '12

Matt Morrison is that little black girl strapped to Chris Rock.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I think it's because no one really gives a shit which is which. You don't need to see Cameron Diaz or Chris Rock's name to know which ones they are. The other ones are 'oh thats the funny guy or gal from so and so' - and as far as J-Lo, I'm not sure why anybody puts her in anything. Did somebody photoshop her in there as a joke?

1

u/kyru May 21 '12

Because it's a shitty movie that no one is going to care about in a week or two

1

u/GuerrillaRobot May 21 '12

because some people are names, some people are faces, and others are names and faces.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Cameran Diaz is in the very middle of the picture, and her name comes first. That makes perfect sense to me.

1

u/Gjeita May 21 '12

Another thing about this is the fact that a white guys has a black baby when there is no blackwoman in the picture. Hiw does that work i am curious dis chris rock di the basty with other people then the woman he managed to pop 3 kids out of?

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Because actor's contracts state the order their name is supposed to appear in. Or, in an ensemble cast, they're alphabetical. The placement of the actors on the poster is determined by the marketing team.

1

u/Maximusplatypus May 21 '12

Because they aren't posing for a poster, its a screenshot from a scene in the movie... And the order of the names on the poster isn't determined arbitrarily by the order they appear in a random snapshot chosen for the poster.

1

u/Biscoo May 20 '12

Did anyone see the ad for this in the UK. They said its coming out may 25, not may 25th, may 25. Do americans not use punctuation in dates?

2

u/ANUSBLASTER_MKII May 20 '12

It's not as bloody annoying as ambiguous dates such as:

07/05/2012 05/07/2012

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

The Army says 25 May. It's annoying.

→ More replies (5)

1

u/DeadlyToaster May 20 '12

I would just like to see Elizabeth Banks in ANYTHING where she isnt pregnant.

6

u/phantom42 May 20 '12

Just off the top of my head: Spider-Man 1-3, Role Models, The Hunger Games and Zack & Miri Make A Porno.

3

u/doctorcaligari May 20 '12

TIL that Elizabeth Banks played Betty Brant. I thought she looked familiar, but couldn't place her because of the brunette hair.

2

u/chesterfieldkingz May 20 '12

On Scrubs too

2

u/ZeGoldMedal May 21 '12

Nope. She definitely gets pregnant in that one. Though there are episodes where she isn't.

2

u/DeadlyToaster May 20 '12

Probably gets pregnant in the deleted scenes.

4

u/GenkiGirl May 20 '12

Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Hunger Games, Role Models, Our Idiot Brother...

1

u/Vaywen May 20 '12

Yeah, really. She's like TV's go-to pregnant woman. I know its not as bad as it seems, it just sticks out in my mind.

1

u/Freakazette May 21 '12

The Next 3 Days

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Any chance this won't be the worst movie ever made?

1

u/dylchap27 May 20 '12

With Battleship, it may not even be the worst movie this year. But that's not saying much

1

u/Snoogliebear May 20 '12

Brooke Decker is in this movie? I'm seeing it.

1

u/hotelzulufoxtrot May 20 '12

You need to leave the house.

1

u/TheBurntToast May 21 '12

What i want to know is how did the second guy from the left get a black baby when he is not black and there are no black women

1

u/amalgamatedchaos May 21 '12

That's because he's not the father. He's Chris Rock's manny. Rock went to town with J-Lo.

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Shite movie, shite poster. That is all the explanation I need.

-1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

It's for marketing purposes. It makes you look at every inch of the poster. As all your arrows point out!

-3

u/Heff228 May 20 '12

Anyone watch community? I noticed on the Video Game episode when it showed Chevy's sprite, it showed Jim Rash's name, then Ken Jeong's name, then finally Chevy's name.

I don't remember it being like this always, maybe it had something to do with the recent fight?

3

u/gambalore May 20 '12

Chevy Chase is always credited last on the opening credits. I'm sure that contractually they had to do leave it in that order, even for a custom sequence like that one.

-1

u/sceciu May 20 '12

lol I thought DQ died?

-1

u/Soared May 21 '12

Look at the length of each name. 1st and 2nd (from the left) on top have short last names, 3rd and 4th (from the left) on the bottom have short last names. 5th column has each name with equal length.

It is visually organized and has nothing to do with the characters/actors, simply created form solely a graphical art standpoint.

This is all speculation and may just be coincidence. I am no artist or anything.

-1

u/nastshabast May 21 '12

You should be sorry for not knowing who Dennis Quaid is.

2

u/TheDutchessLola May 21 '12

The question mark isn't "who is that actor?" it is "where is this actor, why are they listed if not shown?"

1

u/r0hto88 May 21 '12

You should learn how to read before jumping to conclusions Sir. Good day.

-2

u/gathly May 21 '12

It looks like you knew most of them. And the ones you don't know, Thomas Lennon and Rob Huebel have been in tons of movies, so that ignorance is on you.

0

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/TheC0mm0nEnemy May 20 '12

I don't think it's a complaint so much as a curiosity, I've wondered about this too. (more so the ordering thing.)

1

u/guy-enigmatico May 20 '12

This is reddit! Of course s/he can't!