The 21 worst movie posters of all time

From amorphous blobs of Marvel characters to Alicia Vikander’s weird spine, movie posters often play host to Photoshop fails and regretful art direction

Thursday 25 March 2021 06:25 EDT

Unfortunate: Clockwise from top right, the maligned posters for The Heat, Tomb Raider, Avengers: Age of Ultron and 12 Years a Slave (Fox/MGM/Disney)

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Film posters aren’t strictly necessary anymore. Films aren’t advertised in newspapers as much, only a handful of releases have the promotional budget for billboards and bus shelters, and trailers get far more traction. Yet they remain a constant – primarily because they’re eternally cool.

Movie posters sometimes get it wrong, though. Photoshop fails occur left, right and centre, while a lack of imagination plagues the artwork for even the most successful of modern franchises.

That’s why it’s so easy to put together some of the worst movie posters in recent memory. From a far too Brad Pitt-centric poster for 12 Years a Slave, to the time Marvel turned the Spider-Man cast into an amorphous blob of fire and shocked expressions, here are 21 of the most unpleasant.

Click through to gasp in horror at them all…