How to Add Your Movie Poster to IMDb
Upload a JPG at 2025 × 3000 px, in sRGB, under 20 MB. That's your 27 × 40 one-sheet at full proportions, big enough to look sharp anywhere IMDb shows it.
Here's the nice surprise: IMDb recommends a portrait poster with an aspect ratio of 1:0.675. Do the math and that's exactly 27:40, the proportions of a theatrical one-sheet.
The technical limits are generous. IMDb takes JPEG and PNG, both sides have to be between 500 and 8000 pixels, and the file has to be at least 50 KB. Their help page gives the maximum as both 20 MB, so stay under 20 and you're safe. Convert to sRGB before uploading, since IMDb asks for RGB images and flags profiles like Adobe RGB.
Getting it onto the page
Adding a poster happens in two steps. First you upload it to the title's image gallery, then you ask for it to become the primary image, which is the one that shows at the top of the page and in search. IMDb's help article on changing or replacing a poster walks through it, and it goes like this:
- Go to your film's title page and click + Add Image. It's at the end of the image gallery or under the Photos section.
- In the panel that opens, choose Poster as the image type. This is the step people miss. Only images typed as Poster can become the primary image, and you can't change the type after the image is live.
- Submit it. An editor reviews it before it appears.
- Once it's live in the gallery, filter the gallery by Poster, open your image, and click the pencil icon.
- Choose the option to make it the primary image and submit again for review.
If you're replacing a poster that's already there, don't report or ask to delete the old one first. IMDb says doing that before the new one is live gets your contribution thrown out. The old poster moves back into the gallery on its own once yours becomes primary.
You can follow along from the "Track your contribution" link in the email IMDb sends you, and if something gets rejected, they'll tell you why.
What gets rejected
IMDb's image guidelines are mostly common sense, but a few catch filmmakers out. You need to own the poster or have the right to use it, which is worth confirming with your designer if the art includes licensed photography. Watermarks are fine if they're yours or your distributor's, but not a third party's. Borders, a stretched aspect ratio, and visible pixelation or moiré all get bounced, so upload a clean export of the actual poster rather than a screenshot of it.
Tag it properly
When you upload, IMDb asks for a few tags. Language tags cover any language that appears in the poster's text. Country tags say where the poster is meant for, so a poster made for one territory should only be tagged with that country.
The one we like: you can tag people on the poster, but only names that actually appear on it, including in the billing block. So if your cinematographer is credited down there, they can be tagged and the poster shows up on their page too, which is a good reason to get the billing block right.
Letterboxd and FilmFreeway work differently
Letterboxd doesn't let you upload a poster at all. It pulls posters from another database, and that one wants a different crop. FilmFreeway has its own size too, and it's a much smaller file.
- How to get your movie poster on Letterboxd
- What size should your poster be for FilmFreeway?
- What is the standard movie poster size?
Still finishing the poster itself? BillingBlox builds the billing block for you, free, and every name you put in it is one you can tag on IMDb later. Upload your credits from a spreadsheet or type them in, then export a PNG or an outlined SVG.
What Size Should Your Poster Be for FilmFreeway?
