A single-owner sale of rare cinema paper set records for Robin Hood and pushed surprising pre-Code and Golden Age posters well beyond estimate.
By Intelligent Collector Staff | April 1, 2025
Heritage Auctions’ March 27-28 sale of the Dwight M. Cleveland Collection realized $1,448,180 across 540 lots, with more than 1,500 bidders competing for one of the most visually driven movie poster collections ever offered by the auction house.
The top lot was The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Brothers, 1938), a three-sheet poster that sold for $47,500 and set a Heritage auction record for a poster from the film. The result reflected what collectors value most in vintage cinema paper: scale, color, condition and a design that compresses a film’s identity into a single image.
Other strong results followed. Picture Snatcher (Warner Brothers, 1933) brought $42,500, more than doubling its high estimate, while The High Sign reached $38,750, one of the strongest results Heritage has seen for a Buster Keaton poster.
The sale also produced one of its biggest surprises with The Wolf of Wall Street (Paramount, 1929), a three-sheet poster for a lost pre-Code financial drama, which realized $30,000 against a much lower estimate. Mickey Mouse and King Kong also showed the power of instantly recognizable imagery, with Mickey Mouse in Building a Building reaching $32,500.
For consignors, Cleveland’s collection shows why Heritage can be the best place to sell movie posters when a collection has rarity, visual strength and a clear collecting point of view. The auction did not depend on one era or one star; it showed that great cinema imagery can bring serious competition across categories, formats and countries of origin.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release (April 1, 2025).