What a Man’s Movie Posters Can Say About Him

A lot people believe you can tell a lot about someone by their handshake or by how they decorate their bedroom. (Which is probably why I prefer hugging and why only a few people are allowed in my room.) However, being a movie buff, I’ve been able to tell a lot about men from their collections of movie posters. A lot of my guy friends and guys I have dated have had their walls plastered with movie posters. However, there is always one that seems to stand out more than the rest. A guy may be collecting posters just for the reason that they like them, but in most cases, the posters guys collect can say a whole lot more about them. So here is a list of typical guy movie posters that end up on a man’s wall, and what they (COULD) say about them.

(*Guys, feel free to comment on what posters say about women in the comment section!)


Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings

What I noticed about men who have these posters on their walls is that they’re EXTREMELY passionate people. If you are dating these people and do not like either one of these franchises, be prepared for hours of debating on the reasons why you didn’t like the movies. Other notable mentions: Star Trek, The Matrix

X-Men/Spiderman/Superman

So if a guy has a superhero movie poster up in his room, he must likely has a shrine of them also. If he’s not a teenager and he has them in his room….do not be alarmed, girls! These men are not afraid of putting their fetish out in the open. They love to embrace their inner child, and as long as they do not make you dress up like Jean Grey, Mary Jane, or Lois Lane, then you most likely have nothing to worry about. (Hopefully….) Other notable mentions: Hulk, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Batman

Rocky

If ‘Rocky’ is on his wall, then this guy most likely has big dreams and loads of ambition. He finds this movie inspiring, and probably spouts out a lot of Sly Stallone “motivation quotes.” As long as he doesn’t call you Adrienne, or hum ‘Eye of the Tiger’ in bed. Everything should be cool. Other notable mentions: Rocky 2-6, Rambo 1-3

Cheech and Chong’s ‘Up in Smoke’

If a ‘Cheech and Chong’ poster is on a guy’s wall, then he is probably the exact opposite of #3. He might lack ambition, have a good sense of humor, and probably appreciate all the marijuana jokes. (If you catch my drift.) Other Notable Mentions: Friday, Dazed and Confused, Half-baked, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Barbarella/Showgirls/Dukes of Hazzard

If you find yourself in a room with a bunch of sexy movie posters of women, then congratulations…you have just entered the guy’s “spank-bank.” Believe me, he has made many generous deposits in this bank, so I would enter with extreme caution. (Bring a flourscent light, gloves, and anti-bacterial cream! :P) Other Notable Mention: Jessica Alba’s ‘Sin City’ Poster

Swingers

Girls, don’t be alarmed if you see this poster on his wall. He is most likely NOT a player. ‘Swingers’ to men, is like ‘Sex and The City’ to women. It’s the ultimate guy movie that almost every man I know can relate to. This is a movie that is close to his heart. However, if you find that your man recites “The Swingers rules” and lives by them. Leave immediately!

Rebel Without A Cause/Taxi Driver/Reservoir Dogs

The guy who has these posters on his wall is cool and laidback and appreciates the classics. He knows the difference between a ‘film’ and a ‘movie.’ He does not conform, and probably rather go see in old/independent films in theatres then see big Hollywood films. Other notable mention: Casablanca

Army of Darkness

This seems to be the most popular poster from ‘The Evil Dead’ series I see on a man’s wall. If you see this poster on the man’s wall, you must know that he thinks he is Bruce Campbell’s biggest fan. He probably has both his books, (signed) has every various collector’s edition of any of the Evil Dead movies there are available, and most likely has seen ‘The Evil Dead’ musical…more than once. This is a man’s platonic man crush. Do not mock him for it, because he will not take too kindly to it :P. Other Notable Mentions: ‘The Evil Dead’, The Evil Dead 2,’ ‘Bubba-Ho-Tep’

SCARFACE/GOODFELLAS

There are typically three types of men I’ve come across who have posters of ‘Scarface’ or ‘Goodfellas’ on their walls. The first type are men are genuinely huge DePalma and Scorsese fans.(This is the best group!) The second type are the materialistic men out there that think having loads of money, women, and power is what life is all about. The third type of men are the ‘posers’ or ‘conformists.’ (The largest group!) It’s as if men all around were told at a young age, if they don’t have these posters on their walls, then they are pansies! These posters are the BRAND NAMES of all movie posters. So if you see either of these movie posters on the wall, test their knowledge of these movies. If they only know the famous phrases from the movie, then they are the POSERS.

One Night in Paris/Spice World/any ‘August Underground’ film

If you walk into a man’s room and see any of these posters up, this is what I want you to do.

1. Back up
2. Politely excuse yourself from the room
3. Run, do not walk, but RUN straight out of the house.

So, I am purposely leaving out a few big and OBVIOUS movie posters on the list, so you guys can discuss about them in the comment section. (So, I don’t want to see any of those ‘I can’t believe you left THAT one out’ comments! :P)

Also, next week I will be doing a part 2 to this editorial and I need your guys’ help. If you have photos of your favorite movie posters on your walls (that have not been discussed), please send them to [email protected] with the subject line: MOVIE POSTERS. I will make sure to give you a shout out on The Movie Blog with my personal analysis by early next week!

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73 thoughts on “What a Man’s Movie Posters Can Say About Him

  1. i am a 29 year old man. Here is a list of whats on my wall in my bedroom.

    Boxing 8×10’s of some of my fav fighters.

    2 Muhammad ali posters/fighting sonny liston and joe frazier.

    One rocky movie poster.

    One Jessica alba DARK ANGEL TV promo poster.

    3 8×10’s of jessica alba with autograph on them, one 4×6 autographed photo of her also.

    2 signed photos of sarah michelle gellar.

    1 poster of model adriana lima.

    autographed 8×10 of george foreman.

    autographed photo of tommy morrison.

    a few autographed photos of some of my favorite fitness models.

    and last, one poster of UFC’S Rachelle leah bud light poster.

  2. If a guy has the posters from “Goodfellas”, “Casio”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “Donnie Brasco”, and “Pulp Fiction” on his wall, whatever you do, don’t look in the trunk of his car!

    Fuggedaboudit.

  3. Hey, if she’s so shallow that a movie poster will send her running, then the guy is better off without her, methinks. I’m more impressed by a guy willing to go to bat and defend his shit rather than take it down and hide it for the sake of his girl.

  4. haha, the guys trying to defend themselves in comments are great. No matter how much you try and defend yourself if you own lots of “nerdy” posters (you all know what they are) and she is not a “nerd” she’ll never take a step into your room :P

  5. What about the foreign film category?

    My living room is filled with foreign film posters (Ran, Amelie, Three Colors), my bedroom is filled with my own artwork and posters for a film property I’m selling. My hallway however does have a two Matrix, two Casablanca, a Godfather (and a few others as filler)going on. Gave up on Star Wars as George ruined the property several years ago…

  6. I think someone should make a giant poster out of this blog page and put it up in the middle of their poster wall. heh. :P Hilarious post. I don’t have posters, I’d rather have artist prints but then I not one to be a huge movie buff either. hmm so why am I here? …

  7. I believe that once you’ve reached a certain age, you should have grown out of putting posters on your walls. If you’re not careful, the Queer Eye guys are gonna come along, rip down all those posters, tell you to grow up and paint the walls a lovely shade of Ripe Papaya with teak furniture to match. Yikes!

  8. @Frankie J

    It isn’t displayed, but I do got a Halloween 4 theatrical poster…or two.

    *****

    I have a friend who has a Guardian poster (Costner/Kutcher) and Pirates Of The Carribbean all over the place. Will this lass be a good date?

  9. Man, I hum “Eye of the Tiger” when I do everything.

    As for movie posters, I have zero movie posters up at the moment. If I still have them though, I would have 2. First Ninja Turtles movie poster and a Rocky III poster, got them when I was really young, like 10 yrs old and under. If I do still have them they would be rolled up with all my other posters I have. I didn’t put them back up when we moved, not enough wall space for them all. I opted to put up a few things that were of more importance to me. I do have this sweet ass wall scroll for Street Fighter Zero.

    http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/893/streetfighterzerotg6.jpg

    I’m not much of a movie poster collector, I prefer comic and videogame characters mostly. I have a couple blacklight Spider-man posters, the Spidey one has him swinging through the city, but the Venom one is my fave. It has Eddie Brock’s evil smiling face being covered up by the symbiote, very nice.

  10. Most excellent post. I have three movie posters in my room. Saving Private Ryan, Titanic (US Poster & International). All my posters are the original double sided versions because this two of my favorite movies.

    For any long time movieblog listeners, yes I am Chinese and yes I saw titanic a million times in the theatres.

  11. Very nice topic Serena! Hilarious!

    Here are the movie posters hanging up in my home:

    Living Area – Shanghai Triad, Mulholland Drive, Your Friends and Neighbors.

    Basement Home Theatre Entranceway – 12 Monkeys, Leaving Las Vegas, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Brand Upon The Brain!, Clerks II.

  12. @ Rusty James,

    You’d be surprised how many women go on this site and don’t comment. I’ve been getting a lot of email from this post. lol But, I’m also trying to reach out to the men as well. :)

  13. I have the Pulp Fiction poster (the one that looks like a magazine cover), Independence Day, and a Ralph McQuarrie print of Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back…of course these were put on plaques. I have others (Star Wars and a bunch of X-Files) but haven’t put them up yet.

  14. The only flaw with this post is that I don’t think TMB actually has any female readers. Ol’ wellz. Serena, are you dating anyone and if so what does this guy have for posters, or what are his favorite movies?
    I keep hoping to meet a girl who loves Warren Oats as much as me but it never happens.

  15. Great post, thought I would contribute.

    I have…

    Dr Strangelove
    The Exorcist
    The Godfather
    Taxi Driver
    Leon
    Fight Club
    Sin City (Jessica Alba)
    The Shining
    Natural Born Killers

    So… I’m a cool, laid back guy that appreciates the classics and… have made many deposits in my “spank bank”.

    I can live with that.

  16. I have a Jessica Alba Sin City poster, a Ghostbusters poster, and a Homer Simpson in Scarface pose (holding a remote control, instead of a gun). What does that say? :)

  17. I had a Terminator 2 and Robocop posters when I was younger. Now I would have the same but I would add a Dark City poster and um….a Breakfast On Pluto poster lol.

  18. I’m callin’ BS on this one, I have a vintage Army of Darkness poster in my man cave yet I have none of those other things u mentioned. I think it’s a badass movie and a great poster, yet in no way do I see myself as or wish to be the world’s biggest Bruce Campbell fan.

  19. Wow good post Sad to say but I have the cheech and chong poster as well as the 1973 serpico poster(still pacinos best movie) but the opther posters I have are Halloween Halloween 2 and Halloween H2O what dose that tell tou

  20. I’ve got an old-school Star Wars and a Death Proof poster surrounded by the posters from the first 6 James Bond movies (the Connery ones). What does that say?

  21. Others mentioned Shawshank and Boondock Saints, but the big one that comes to my mind is Serenity, and I’m just curious what Serena thinks about that… and I guess lesser known fantasy/sci-fi movies in general. This from a professing movie buff/sci-fi geek.
    -Matt

  22. @ Brian

    Hmm…with ‘300’ you would have to see what else is in his room or posters in his room that would suggest that it’s a manly pick or a gay pick.

    I have both gay and straight guy friends that have that movie poster on the wall. lol

  23. Another awesome and well thought out editorial by Serena! Again, one of the better on TMB in a long time.

    So I sort of have “off the wall” posters hanging. I use laser disc covers and put them in album frames and hang those. The movie has to be a good movie and the poster general has very little text, but looks cool: Unforgiven, Bullit, True Romance.

    The big framed ones are Hurly Burly and completely KICK ASS sepia-colored poster of Robert Redford and Paul Newman from Butch and Sundance with no text. nice.

    SO what does this say about me? Other than the fact that I have reallly good taste in movies.

  24. Highly amusing read! haha.

    I have on my walls:

    Batman: 7 Batman posters (4 Batman Begins, 1 of Batman, 1 of the logo and 1 of Batman based on designs by Kia Asamiya), Batman logo flag, Batman Begins framed IMAX poster, Batman Returns collaborative drawing, Batman Begins photo, Batman and Robin (Adam West/Burt Ward) signed (not authentic, I’m afraid :P) photo

    V For Vendetta IMAX poster

    Hot Fuzz

    Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels

    Sin City (Marv)

    Elm Street (street sign with Freddy’s glove over it, not a poster)

    Loads of band flags and posters

    I plan on getting some new ones, meaning taking down alot of the band posters.

  25. @Rusty James

    What’s wrong with 2 days in the Valley? That movie is kick-ass!! :) I always show it to my friends who haven’t seen it, and they always seem to like it as well….

    But you, to each his own I guess :P

    Thanks for the compliment though!

  26. @ Kristina,

    Read my list…you’re not alone babes! lol Although, your Beauty and the Beast poster would tell me I was in a girl’s room. :P

    If you take a photo of the room full of posters…I’ll put it up next week :)

  27. @cib3k,

    Note that the article is about what a man’s poster COULD mean…what I say is not carved in stone, babes. :)

    Btw, thanks guys for all the emails and the comments.

    Just if you guys are curious…this is what is going up in my house soon.

    Jackie Brown
    Suicide Kings
    2 Days in The Valley
    Weird Science
    Higher Learning
    Carlito’s Way
    Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

    :P

  28. Well, my dorm room posters are

    Pan’s Labyrinth
    The Nightmare Before Xmas
    Hot Fuzz
    Rescue Dawn
    Beauty and the Beast

    By that list, you’d think it was a guy’s room, but there are very, VERY few chick flicks that I can tolerate, so they don’t make it to my wall:)

  29. I’ve not figured out anything as in-depth as your post, Serena…but I do notice a girl’s movie posters. One with posters of James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, etc. flicks is usually much more interesting than someone who has posters of Vin and Paul from The Fast and the Furious. A girl displaying a LotR poster really doesn’t say much either way, but Indiana Jones or Star Wars does. A movie poster of pretty much any film with a cult following (even if I didn’t like the movie personally) is usually a good sign.

  30. I got a bit of a problem. Most of my posters are framed and I tend to rotate them every so often. Now, if you go over to my facebook page, Serena, you will see one of them behind me in one of my photos (in Misc)…the concert doc U2 Rattle & Hum. It is framed because of the following:

    1) I’ve always liked U2.

    2) I want to preserve the poster because before I got the frame for it it it wasn’t in good condition

    3) I got it back in 1988, when I was at Ferris St. University, and involved in a entertainment oriented campus organization.

    I bring this story up, because of that latter reason. You fail to mention that for some movie poster collectors, some may have something other to do other than what you describe above.

    BTW, your post is a bit timely, since yesterday I rotated again. Up until Friday, Memphis Belle and “Nominations” version Chicago were displayed. Today stands Lair Of The White Worm and Rising Sun . Yes, Lair Of The White Worm. Amanda Donahoe in leather; Vestron logo too.

    Anyway, to save you the trouble:

    1) I do have a Matrix poster, and a video poster of Star Wars Trilogy.

    2) I have Blade:Trinity (won through New Line contest few years back), The Punisher (Tom Jane) , the Hulk a Darkman poster (Who Is Darkman advance), and a Darkman banner.

    3) I have no Stallone posters. No Rockys, No Rambos, not even a Cobra or Rhinestone. But I do have a Delta Force 2 Chuck Norris, so that makes up for everything here.

    4) No Cheech & Chongs. No How Highs either. I do have ‘Speed’, though. Oh. Wrong kind of film. Sorry.

    5) No Albas, no Showgirls, no Barbarella. However…see above (Lair Of The White Worm)

    6) No Swingers.

    7) The Graduate….and I’m not sure if “Res Dogs” belongs in your category, and since I don’t have it, I do have ‘Pulp Fiction’.

    8) It’s not much, but…does a AOD 11×17 count? No? How about two? (Note: the “Darkman” stuff might also count in some books, but its only a technicality)

    9) No DePalma, no Scorcese…however, I do have a ‘Round Midnight’ which Scorcese appeared as an actor, (’tis a nice piece of art for a poster!) and I DO have the vinyl record of the soundtrack to ‘Scarface’, where it is storage.

    10) Since I’ll collect movie posters at any given time, I had to do a quick inventory…lets see…nope. Thank God! I’m safe!

    *****

    I can’t take a pic of everything in my bounty, of course…I’ll do the best I can, and I’ll have to be really selective. I’ll also have to tidy up in some spots, don’t want something incriminating in the shot…

  31. hahah…I agree.

    There is always that one guy who has something negative to say. The post could be “Bill Gates gives all his money to charity” and there would be that one guy who says “so what? I’m not impressed. He should have given his first born as well”

  32. I’d just like to add one caveat to the first profile: if the guy has a Matrix poster and one or more of the others, the description applies, but if he only has a Matrix poster, it may not.

  33. What a load of crap. Don’t you actually know anybody who has a poster on the wall just because he likes the POSTER, not the MOVIE? Just because it looks cool? There are a lot of cool posters out there to mediocre or average movies and a lot of people who like the posters for what they are, not necesarily because they like a lot the movies or a certain genre. Somebody would have to be a real movie geek hanging posters to the movies he loved in order for you to get a glimpse of his inner self based on the posters. What the posters say about most people has more to do with their aesthetic sense and less with the actual movies they represent. You can look at posters as paintings, to better understand what I’m trying to say. Somebody may have posters for totally unrelated movies just because they all display something he/she likes – sci-fi imagery, pretty women, tough guys, favourite actors etc.

    So generally you should consider what the posters LOOK like, not the MOVIES they relate to.

  34. SPOT ON POST SERENA!
    I dont no with i agreed with all yours statements but was very funny and a little worryed too.
    imagine with all the girls start too use your system to try too figure out the guys style right way!

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