From
time to time, movie studios and/or independent printers will honor
a particular film by releasing what is known as an "Anniversary
Poster," marking a milestone in time for a classic movie. For
example, posters were issued for the 50th anniversary of
Casablanca and the 20th anniversary of Star Wars.
These posters are generally printed in limited numbers (some or actually
individually numbered) and are released to the public for sale.
This is where an anniversary issue differs from a "reissue/rerelease
". A reissue/rerelease is issued by the studio directly to
the theatre and is not for public sale. However, there have been exceptions.
In
the case of Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for example,
the studio issued a one sheet which contained the banner "50th
Anniversary. Disney issued this poster for advertising purposes only
to coincide with the reissue/rerelease of the film to the theatres
and it was not for sale to the public. In this case, it would be considered
a "reissue/rerelease" and not an anniversary, even though
it contains the 50th Anniversary banner. Disney then licensed
the poster for a commercial issue to
the public.
Because
anniversary issues are by their nature a testament to a particular
major film, they normally contain beautiful artwork. Some are even
printed on gold or silver mylar. There have
been occasions where anniversary issues will contain artwork that
was created at the time the film was initially made but for whatever
reason not used at the initial release. This is true in the case of
the poster released for the a 10th anniversary for the
Return of the Jedi,regular issue.
While
anniversary issues by definition do not fall into the category of
"legitimate movie art," they are very desirable to certain
collectors for several reasons:
Only
"movie classics" are honored by an anniversary issue. Since
original paper on most of these classics is extremely rare and expensive,
the anniversary posters give movie fans an affordable alternative.
In most instances, these anniversary posters are more beautiful than
the original poster and are released in limited numbers to give them
a collectible value. Quite often they are individually numbered (somewhere
on the poster, most likely the bottom right hand corner.) classifying
them as limited edition.
