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The use of double-sided posters in the film industry began in the 1950s with only a few films utilizing the process. Major films known to have released double-sided posters back then were: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) and Zulu in 1964, but the process wasn't widely used.

However, in the 1980s the design of movie theaters changed from the small individual screens to the giant multiplexes and this reduced the amount of advertising space available for a given movie. This meant that the wide variety of poster sizes that existed before this time had be consolidated into the one sheet size (27 x 41 and 27 x 40). Now the studios no longer needed a separate organization to control poster distribution and the movie studios took back those responsibilities from NSS (National Screen Service). Technicolor Inc. eventually bought NSS in September 2000.

With the studios (in 1980s) now controlling distribution of the movie posters, the concept of double-siding increased. These double-sided posters were more expensive to produce and gave a more realistic look.

While the single-sided posters only have printing on the front side, the double-sided posters have the same artwork on both the front and the backside. The artwork on the backside is reversed and the shading is lighter.  Double-sided posters are printed on thicker paper than the single-sided versions and are meant for display in light boxes. The reverse artwork on the back renders a 3-D effect when a light is placed behind the poster. You cannot display single-sided posters in light boxes as they will look washed out.

The superior quality of the double-sided poster is due to a very expensive printing process which involves running the initial negative through at the standard colour intensity. The technician then reverses the poster running it back through the presses at reduced colour intensity (30% to 40% of the initial colour). This is why when you view a double-sided poster, the artwork on the front is more colourful and detailed than the reverse print on the back.

Note: Double-sided video posters are becoming increasingly popular. However, in most cases the backside of the video poster is not a lighter version of the artwork on the front. Instead, double-sided video posters boast different artwork on both sides. In some instances the poster can contain two different versions of the artwork for the same movie or the artwork can be from two different movies.