Best Movie Posters of 1980-1989 » The Poster Collector (2025)

What is a movie without its poster? More than just a bit of marketing, posters have evolved into an art form in their own right, showcasing the blistering work of the world’s greatest illustrators and designers with clever concepts, elegant artwork, and bold original ideas. In celebration of my personal appreciation of movie poster design and with the help of the extensive IMP Awards archives, comes the latest edition in our Now That’s What I Call A Movie Poster! series, highlighting what I think are the best and most iconic movie posters from 1980 to 1989.

As we have seen over the years a great movie poster doesn’t always translate into a great movie, in the same way, a great movie doesn’t always translate into a great movie poster. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, then by the same token, a movie poster is worth a thousand pictures. After all it’s responsible for encapsulating the tone, story, and visual style of a movie in one large image.

In this edition I will showcased the movie posters from 1980s that have demonstrated a different style or perspective than the normal poorly executed movie posters we see today,where the vast majority of marketing consultants just lazily slap together pictures of the movie stars in Photoshop (floating heads), colour it teal and orange and send it off to the printers.The featured posters are clever, daring, unforgettable and sometimes just plain risqué designs, as in the case of movie poster for Felt from 2015.

What do you think is the best movie poster from this decade? Do you have a favourite movie poster designer, illustrator or artist? Or do you think we have missed a movie poster from this decade that should be included? Let us know in the comments.

We hope you have enjoyed reading and viewing our collection of the best and most iconic movie posters from 1980 to 1989. Let us know in the comments what your favourites movie posters from this era are. If you are want to continue the journey through the best and most iconic movie posters over the years, have a look below for others years in the series.