Anna Daniels
If it seems like billing order is a ridiculous thing for world-famous actors to be fighting over, well, we’re right there with you. After all, if Robert Downey, Jr.‘s mug is front and center (and, er, maybe slightly to the right) on the poster, it’s doubtful that moviegoers will get confused as to whether he is involved if his name doesn’t appear in the exact spot prescribed by this decades-old convention.
At this point, though, it’s so thoroughly ingrained in the filmmaking business — as is the fine, bizarrely repetitive art of poster design — that it’s not likely to change anytime soon. (Or, you know, ever.) Creative solutions to even the most contentious billing disputes were already arrived at a lifetime ago; take, to name just one example, the smash hit 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. To solve the problem of who would receive top billing between Steve McQueen and Paul Newman (who were pretty much dead-on equal in terms of star power at the time), producers simply requested that the poster’s designers stagger the names so that McQueen’s appeared furthest left on the one-sheet, while Newman’s appeared closest to the top.
Silly, right? Well, whatever it takes to make your stars happy, and keep that dough rolling in. We’re sorry to report that out-of-order names on movie posters will, in all likelihood, continue to drive you nuts for the foreseeable future; on the bright side, at least now you know why.
Written by: Looper
