Heritage’s July sale brings together scarce horror advertising, a landmark Chaplin one sheet, blockbuster imagery and rare animation posters.
By Intelligent Collector Staff | July 9, 2025
Movie posters were created to advertise a film for a limited theatrical run, not to survive for generations. Heritage Auctions’ July 24-25 Movie Posters Signature Auction shows why the examples that remain have become collecting targets: they preserve the artwork, typography and promotional strategies that shaped how audiences first encountered a film.
Universal Monsters form one of the auction’s strongest groups, with material tied to Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Mummy’s Hand. The Bride of Frankenstein title lobby card gives horror buyers a direct connection to the acclaimed 1935 sequel and to a period when lobby cards were central parts of a theater’s advertising campaign.
Silent-film history is represented by the The Kid one sheet. Its prominent promise of “6 reels of Joy” reflects Charlie Chaplin’s push toward feature-length comedy, making the poster important not only as Chaplin advertising but also as evidence of a major change in American film exhibition.
A later turning point appears in the Jaws international seven sheet. Roger Kastel’s shark image became one of cinema’s most recognizable designs, and the oversized format gives buyers a rare version of the artwork associated with the film often credited with establishing the modern summer blockbuster.
Animation and lost-film material broaden the sale beyond horror and blockbusters. The large-format Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs poster with Gustaf Tenggren artwork brings early Disney promotion into focus, while the newly discovered The Way of All Flesh one sheet represents a film that is now considered lost and a surviving poster known in only a small number of examples.
For buyers, this is why Heritage can be a best place to buy movie posters: one catalog lets collectors compare horror, silent comedy, animation, blockbuster advertising and lost-film rarities across formats and eras, with the condition information and historical context needed to evaluate each piece.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release (July 9, 2025).