Teaser Posters v Theatrical Posters

Teaser posters are promotions for a film that are designed to be mysterious and intriguing for the audience; a simplified version which may include an iconic symbol or image from the film. They don't often give a lot of information apart from the image and/or a tagline and may include a release date, or even just 'coming soon', as they are created so early in the marketing stage. Theatrical posters, however, are created a lot later in the production process of the film and will contain the majority of the conventions for film posters, such as the director, stars' names, main protagonists, and hints regarding the film's narrative. Below is an analysis of the differences between the teaser and theatrical posters for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Teaser Poster:

This poster for the last instalment of the The Hobbit series features the title, the tagline ("From the director of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy"), the release date and the studios that produced the film. The association with the director of The Lord of the Rings helps to attract a similar target audience and helps to create a 'hype', as anyone familiar with either franchise will know the director's style and likely quality of the film (as having such a director also implies a large budget, making the film high-concept).
The main image shows Bilbo Baggins, the main protagonist, covered in dust and dirt, while ashes are falling, suggesting there is fire around him. With the context of this being 'the battle of the five armies', we know that there is a massive conflict in the film and so the fire and ashes seem likely and help to convey an ominous, foreboding and slightly sombre mood.
The main image's colour grading acts as the colour scheme for the poster, as it is quite dark and it appears to have been desaturated to the point where it is almost black and white, communicating a dark tone to the audience and making the poster more dramatic. The poster is enigmatic through the lack of information given; the only clue besides the tagline is Bilbo's facial expression as he stares into the distance, which appears determined but apprehensive, as if he is waiting for something to happen, leaving the audience asking questions such as: what is he looking at? What battle is he going to face?
Due to this already being an established franchise with two films preceding The Battle of the Five Armies, we can conclude that not a lot of information is needed for its teaser poster, as the image of the main protagonist, the title and the tagline are enough to generate interest and intrigue the audience.

Theatrical Poster:

The theatrical poster has a lot more information, as it features the title, a different tagline, actor and director credits and an obviously more revealing main image. Although the release date is unspecified on this poster (it instead says 'coming soon'), it can still be considered as theatrical because of how much else it reveals compared to the teaser. Additionally, multiple posters were made in this film's marketing campaign, including teasers that feature other characters besides the protagonist individually, which could be a technique used in order to appeal to as many members of the target audience as possible, but this poster includes them all together. The fact that they are all included on this poster suggests a unified force battling against the antagonists, who are shown below them in a burst of fire.

Bilbo is positioned near the top of the poster and is the largest, again showing that he is the main protagonist, and wields a sword. This main image doesn't make use of direct address by having any of the characters look directly at the 'camera' as some posters do, but by having them all looking into the distance with determined expressions emphasises the severity of the battle they are facing. From top to bottom and right to left, the main protagonists are: Bilbo, Thorin, Gandalf, Bard, Legolas, Tauriel and Thranduil. Above them is 'Smaug', the dragon who threatens to destroy Lake-town.

The colour scheme is composed of red, orange, black and various hues of brown and grey. Compared to the teaser, it is a lot brighter and more eye-catching, but some of the characters such as Bilbo are still relatively desaturated, which gives it a dramatic and cinematic appearance. The bust of fire at the bottom connotes danger and the heat of the battle, while the grey and black clouds suggest impending darkness and conflict in terms of the film's theme. The narrative is therefore very clear to the audience, both through the use of props (swords, Gandalf's staff, Tauriel's bow and arrow) and through the distant collapsing buildings in the background that are emitting smoke.

Lastly, the bottom of the poster is reserved for the film's title, an additional sell line we saw used as a tagline on the teaser poster ("From the director of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy"), and the names of significant actors and the director, along with some studio logos and a promotion for 3D and HFR 3D (these are films that play visuals at twice the standard fps rate). If audiences are unfamiliar with the franchise, the section containing actors' names may interest them through star appeal: for example, Bilbo is played by Martin Freeman, Gandalf is played by Sir Ian McKellen, and so on. Similarly, the association with the director of The Lord of the Rings helps to appeal to fans of the much older franchise and extends their potential reach. To conclude, after conducting this analysis I think it is evident that while teaser posters are tailored to be intriguing and enigmatic for the audience to generate a 'hype' by giving away little information, theatrical posters aim to appeal through exposing more of the narrative and characters, making the target audience more clear.