50 Greatest Movie Lobby Cards

The Shining (1980)

The Card: Freezing in time that terrifically horrific moment in which Jack Nicholson bashes in the bathroom door.

Why It's So Cool: It’s Jack Nicholson bashing in the bathroom door. Go Jack!

The Warriors (1979)

The Card: A fittingly no-holds-barred image for the cult thriller from director Walter Hill.

Why It's So Cool: There are chains. And one seriously steely glare.

Conan The Barbarian (1982)

The Card: Bigging up the decidedly beefy Arnold Schwarzenegger as he takes on Conan the barbarian.

Why It's So Cool: Arnie has a big sword! And even bigger guns! Hooray!

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

The Card: Dark and ominous, with our leads clearly having heard something they don’t much like.

Why It's So Cool: We all know what’s coming next. Cover your eyes, little ones.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1980)

The Card: Steven Spielberg’s iconic image from his second big alien flick.

Why It's So Cool: Spielberg proves he has an eye for awesome images – all he needs is a little boy, a door and an orange light.

The Terminator (1984)

The Card: Tells us all we need to know – Schwarzenegger is The Terminator. Sold.

Why It's So Cool: It made concrete one of Hollywood’s finest formulas. Arnie + gun = top notch.

Dr Strangelove (1964)

The Card: The German lobby card for Kubrick’s war satire.

Why It's So Cool: All it needs is an image of the War Room to get you interested.

Mad Max (1979)

The Card: Mel Gibson wears leather and has a cool car. Oh, and he knows how to handle bad guys.

Why It's So Cool: Mel looks bad-ass, while the illustration to the left deserves to be its own poster.

Superman (1978)

The Card: Sells the comic book adaptation with just a shot of Chris Reeve as Supes soaring through New York.

Why It's So Cool: It made people believe a man could fly.

Clash Of The Titans (1981)

The Card: Giving us a look at one of the coolest movie monsters ever – as well as a pretty little illustration in the bottom right.

Why It's So Cool: This stop-motion Medusa is 10 times scarier than the one in the Clash remake.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.