Poster Analysis: The Dark Knight

Promotion of a movie:
The main purpose of a movie poster is to promote the latest movies in a way of pre-echoing but all around town. You can place them on the side of buses, on bus stops in magazines...basically anywhere. The poster gives you an initial indication of the genre and sub-genre and it attracts a specific sci-fi/fantasy/action thriller audience that they feel the poster appeals to and draws in. Most woman would label this as a typical "male film"as from the poster there isn't anything that would attract a typical female e.g. an attractive lead (batman is wearing a mask in this poster). Also having the list of very famous actors at the bottom usually reassures audiences that its going to be a good movie because actors like Morgan Freeman don't like to get associated with movies that don't have good scripts.

A burning building, surrounded by smoke which makes it seem mysterious. It also shows how destructive this film is and how it is not going to be a film about ponies.
The batman logo has been created on the side of a destroyed building, it looks like something has hit it. The fire that fills the logo shows its a key symbol to the poster as it lights it up and draws your attention to it straight away. Because this bat symbol is so well known you would only have to glance at this poster for you to know it's for a batman movie, well that and Batman is stood right in front of the building. Bits of rubble is falling to the ground but batman is just stood in the middle of all the chaos. This is all known as iconography and conventions. This shows you he is the character that fights evil and has to do all the dirty work; its almost like he's invincible.

"Welcome to a world without rules" tell you that things could get violent because with no rules things can get out of hand quickly. I feel like this poster is showing you  a sneak preview of the end of the movie, on how the villain is defeated and so this might get more people talking about the poster and therefore the movie. The title of the movie is quite plain but it is still bold and stands out! Nowhere on the poster does it actually say "Batman" because the advertising agencies immedialtey know everyone is anticipating this movie and would recognise the comic book based character instantly. He does not need to be branded on the front.
The layout of the poster shows you its more modern, unlike the other batman posters.