Until the 80's and the mushrooming video
market, X-rated theaters had their own distribution of films and advertising
materials outside of the mainstream movie studio distribution. These materials
were very similar to the main stream advertising packages except on a lot
smaller budget. Usually the advertising program would consist of a one sheet,
(sizes would very from 24x36 to 27x41) and a type of pressbook that would
focus less on cast and more on marketing hype.
With the rise of the video stores, the advertising packages
shifted to a 2 to 4 sheet ad sheet that doubled as a small poster and some
larger posters were available.
Cable TV took another bite out of this
market. X-rated movies are still produced (in fact in larger numbers) and
are still shown in X-rated theatres throughout the country, but the primary
focus is now cable and video marketing so there's a lot less advertising material
available than before.
Since an X-rated movie was rarely shown in a "mainstream"
theatre, (there are some NSS distributed X-rated films) and the material
harder to find than conventional material, their movie posters are sought-after
by 'special interest collectors' who prefer collecting the materials on
these limited distribution films.
For a list of the X-rated
posters listed by year of distribution, click here