AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) Movie Poster, Australian One Sheet

While the industry does have a few condition rating standards, there is no movie poster condition rating system that has become the accepted standard world wide. This unfortunately makes condition terms vary from movie poster dealer to movie poster dealer. Terms like Mint, Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, seem to be universal to most condition rating standards, but most standards still lack definition about what and how many flaws/defects/damage defines a specific condition level. For more information on how Movie Posters Australia grades the condition of its movie posters, daybills, lobby cards and other ephemera please see out Movie Poster Condition and Grading page.

In the early days of cinema, posters were primarily hand-drawn and printed in various sizes, often tailored to fit the available space in theaters or promotional areas. In the United States, the "One Sheet" size (some times called '1 Sheet' or '1SH' approximately 27" x 41", became the standard during the 1930s. This size was manageable for theater display and suited the needs of a growing film industry.

Different countries developed their own poster sizes and styles, which also changed sometimes over the decades, and were influenced by local preferences and practical considerations, like available paper sheet sizes and how many posters could be printed on one sheet.

In Australia, the most popular size, the Daybill, has evolved over the decades. Australian Daybills sizes in chronological order are:

• Long Daybills (15" x 40"), from 1920's to pre-WW2 or pre-1941, were printed two to a sheet, longer than current Daybill versions. There were size variances in width from 14.5" to 15" and in height from 39.5" to 40".
• War Time Daybill (10" x 30"), during WW2, for a short time to conserve paper during a war time shortage, four Daybills were printed on one sheet. Information from Press Sheets also referred to these War-Time sizes as "New Size Daybills".
• Post-War Daybill (13" x 30"), this 13" x 30" Post-War size carried through until the 1980's, but also varied in size from 13"-14" x 29.75"-30.25".
• Post-80's Daybill (33cm x 66cm, or 13" x 26"), over a few years in the late 80's, the size changed again to a metric 33cm x 66cm, although these have also varied from 32-33cm x 64.5-66cm. New sizes from the late 80's were created, sometimes called a Mini Daybill or Mini Poster, in 9" x 12", 11" x 17" and 13" x 20".

In the UK, the somewhat unique 'Quad' poster, measuring 30" x 40", became popular, offering a larger landscape format that allowed for more elaborate designs.

In Japan, movie poster sizes were smaller, such as the "B2" (20" x 28"), which suited the more compact living environment of larger cities, smaller advertising spaces, and unique aesthetic sensibilities.

The 1970s and 1980s, witnessed the rise of the "six-sheet" (81" x 81") format, reflecting a trend towards larger and more visually impactful advertising.

Overall, the variation in movie poster sizes across different countries and decades highlights the interplay between technological printing advancements, paper resource availability, paper sheet size changes, cultural preferences, and the evolving nature of movie marketing.

At Movie Posters Australia we tag each poster we sell with a 'size' and 'condition' description at the very top of the page for our customers to easily see. There may however be some slight variations to sizes by up one inch due to variations in production and guillotine methods by printers over the decades.