Thread: Building a movie poster lightbox

Most of the modern movie posters available these days are printed double sided with the reverse a mirror image of the front. The reason is so the colors don't get washed out when placed in the backlit displays that theaters use.

I find it kind of a shame to be displaying these posters in conventional frames and wasting that potential po factor that you get from backlighting, so I decided to build my own poster lightbox. I wanted something that would be fairly easy to swap posters, not too deep so I could mount it in a hallway, and which didn't generate a lot of heat. Heat is the enemy of posters and will cause them to fade quickly.

I decided to build the lightbox using led rope light as it was convenient, ran cool and simply plugged into a wall socket. I also discovered a front loading poster frame from a company called spotlight displays (
Spotlight Displays - Movie Poster Frames

) The frame is ideal for a lightbox. The frame rails snap out and allow the poster to be changed without removing the frame from the wall. The frame is also open in the back and the poster is held between two layers of a PETG plastic. The plastic is somewhat ranslucent. This provides bot anti-glare on the front, and also acts as a diffuser in the back, allowing a shallower profile.

I used 50' of LED rope light, purchased from a big box store for around $50. The frame was made from 1x2 pine and the backing was a piece of white glossy panelling I had laying around. I painted the outside of the frame flat black, but left the inside raw.

I initially tried using the mounting clips that came with the rope light, but found that they tended to break and allow the rope light to fall to the bottom. The solution was to use 3/8" cable clamps. These allow the rope light to pass through easily which adjusts tension, but still holds it in place.

It only took me an afternoon to construct, and the end result is pleasing and everything I hoped for. I still need to secure the middle of each run of the rope light to the back of the frame a bit better. It is falling forward in a few places and that tends to cause hot spots. Other than that, this is a quick and easy way to get something that makes a nice addition to a home theater.

Pictures follow:

Creative Idea! Stuck.

Any way we could get a slightly more zoomed out picture with the room lights off and only the poster lit. This seems like a cool idea and I think I want to either try something like this with movie posters or possibly sports posters for my mancave/theater room/basement.

The second picture is the best I have right now. Usually when you take a picture like this, the frame and room get very dark. I'll see what I can do this weekend.

That's ok, I get the general idea from that picture. I just wanted to see what it would look like in a dark theater room. Do you leave it lit while watching movies? If so is it distracting or does it cause a glare? I currently have no lighting at all when we watch movies. I like it as dark as possible so you can't really see the sound system or the TV. When I watch Avatar I want to feel like I'm in the jungle with them not watching TV with speakers sitting next to me.

Other members of the household aren't as big of a fan of the pitch black room as me. It's not convenient walking in the dark to look for the light switch etc... I thought this might might be a creative way to get a little subtle light into the room without taking to much away from the dark theater feel.

This lightbox is part of the marquee design I am doing for the basement entrance, and is not in the theater itself.

My theater is a front projector setup with 10' screen and dedicated seating. I have some tight focused led floor lamps available, but generally we watch in totally darkness. I actually go further and have painted the screen wall and ceiling a dark indigo. see below.