A phenomenon of the 1960s through the early 80s, the studio packaged double-bill, and along with it the double-bill combo poster, is now a thing of the past. Last attempted for a 3D re-release of Toy Story 1 and 2 in 2009—and parodied for Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse in 2007—the practice of reselling older films as two-for-the-price-of-one re-releases declined, for obvious reasons, with the rise of home video.
But during the heyday of double-billing, studio marketing departments had a lot of fun combining otherwise disparate films in one poster—usually using the creatively bifurcated screen (see especially the kung fu double-bill below)—and I’ve collected some of the most inventive examples.
It was common to repackage two films featuring the same star...
Or two films by the same star auteur...
Or the actress/auteur double-bill...
Or the band/auteur double-bill...
Sequels were commonly re-released together...
And even films that were sequels in name only...
There were the character franchise double-features...
The genre pairings...
And the otherwise random pairings of two films a studio wanted to squeeze a bit more money out of...
All posters courtesy of Heritage Auctions. If you have any personal favorites I’ve missed I’d love to see them.