Reaching an audience in the home video market is much different than reaching the theatrical audience. That often means the key art that’s used for home video releases is changed significantly from the one-sheets that were available during the theatrical marketing cycle. What I’m going to try and do is see what those changes are and what they mean for the appeal being made.

Queen of Katwe

The home video box takes a big part of the theatrical key art – the images of Wyong’o, Oyelowo and Nalwanga all clustered together and looking in different directions – and removes the soft orange light it was originally tinged with. Instead they’re presented in more natural light, though the bright orange sky behind them still evokes wide open spaces, something that’s reinforced by the lake and landscape in the lower part of the art. That lower section is also different. Where originally it featured Nalwanga walking along a series of chess pieces, this one has her and Oyelowo actually playing chess on the shore of the lake, a more overt message to the audience that this is about the game. So it takes the best part of the original artwork and changes other elements to make things a bit more explicit for the audience.

Masterminds

The theatrical poster for this comedy, along with other elements of the campaign, took pains to include the presence of Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, both of whom were on the tip of everyone’s tongues in the wake of Ghostbusters. Now that buzz has apparently cooled off (despite continued outstanding work from both on “SNL”) because they’re cut off of the home video box art. That box art otherwise simply reuses the images from the previous one-sheet, with photos of Galifianakis, Wilson, Wiig and Sudeikis that show them in character and offer a one-word description of that character. Nothing original here, but the omission of those other two actresses is notable, whether it’s because time has passed or the smaller real estate would have just been too cramped with them here.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

A straight-up repurposing of one of the posters, thankfully the one that kinda sorta features Colbie Smulders as well as Tom Cruise, though only the side of her left cheek is seen as she’s facing away from the camera. It’s the exact same image, just cropped a bit differently for the box art aspect ratio.