I think it’s a way to equalize billing too since A’s name is first but C’s face is…

The Dream Girls poster doesn’t show anyone’s face, and the names are placed far, far away from the silhouettes as well making them not visually associated with the figure above. They are not trying to show Jamie Foxx, Knowles and Murphy here.

As for the pirates poster, the images in question are not symmetrical and so it would be much more difficult for the designer to place the actor’s photo above their name. It’s also obvious that legally, Depp’s name must have first billing, but the designer wanted his character to be the central focus of the poster, hence he’s the biggest of the four. You also want Knightly’s face near Bloom’s since they are romantically involved together in the story, and so the designer was forced to place these two next to each other on the right leaving Rush alone on the left.

All of this doesn’t apply to the No Country artwork. Bardem isn’t billed first, he’s billed second and so the designer was able to make his character the focus of the box by placing him in the middle. It would have been a simple matter for the designer to simply horizontally flip the two images of Brolin and Jones, and yet this didn’t happen. Why?

I highly doubt the studios had such specific rules as saying “So and so’s name must appear first, but his image must be third”. That seems highly illogical. I know there are lots of examples where this kind of out-of-order layout is standard, but my point is with No Country, it didn’t have to be that way. Seems like someone was lazy to me.

Example: http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/dreamgirls.jpg

I would hope that third woman is NOT Eddie Murphy. :\

Example 2: http://images.art.com/images/products/regular/10106000/10106388.jpg

This one is all messed up.