After compiling this list I was disappointed to discover that only 5 posters from my selection featured in the ‘Top Grossing Films of 2011′.

There are several conclusions we could draw from this information, but I think that main one is that I shouldn’t change career paths into film poster design.

Nonetheless, here are 40 film posters that I feel are more pleasing to look at than the poster for ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’.

Life in a Day
First up, the only poster this year to feature both a man eating a watermelon and the quote “A thrilling piece of cinema”.

Submarine
Wins the prize for best use of primary colours.

Captain America
The only comic based film to make it into this list, we enjoyed the full frame crop and stern heroic expression.

The Elephant in the Living Room
Let’s be honest – with a title like this it was never going to be a bad poster

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Dirty Girl

One Day

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
If you haven’t seen the video trailer for this – watch it now.

Jane Eyre
A controversial choice, the super-thin typeface won us over on this one.

Margin Call
With illustrated film posters in decline… this one stood out.

Strong Man

Iron Lady
Not to be confused with Iron Man

Paranormal Activity 3
This perhaps doesn’t have the artistic subtlety of some of others… but if you’ve seen Paranormal Activity 1 or 2 this poster will almost certainly send a shiver up your spine.

Larry Crowne
Bold yellow text on a light blue background – lovely stuff.

Harry Potter
Some text knocked up in WordArt plus a quick sketch of a wizard probably would have been enough to secure the No.1 spot at the box office for Harry… but you’ve got to hand it to them this is nicely executed.

Melancholia

The Beaver

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Brides Maids

Restless

Detachment
Shameless use Adrian Broody’s impossible-not-to-like face.

Tabloid

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Yes it’s a very good poster, but that doesn’t excuse reprinting the book with this as the cover.

Money Ball

127 Hours

Limitless

Shame

WIN WIN
Nothing too clever here, but how can you resist the soft yellowy hues of those quotes.

Machine Gun Preacher

Final Destination 5

The Debt
Nothing quite grabs your attention like Helen Mirren in sunglasses.

Horrible Bosses

Crazy Stupid Love
…the multiple frame, colourful bold capitalised text look it pretty hot right now. Another one of our favourites.

Black Swan
One of the many awesome posters for this film.

Vidal Sassoon

Eames
Everyone loves a cheeky diagonal.

The King’s Speech
Typing the name of this film for the first time I just realised the double meaning of the title. Clever.

The Ides of March
I have no idea what this film is about – but it got my attention.

Bad Teacher
Good Poster.

Drive
One of the very few occasions where the font ‘Mistral’ has looked good.

Let us know if you think we’ve missed any!

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