Looking at Film Magazine Front Covers

Many hobbies will feature specialist magazines based upon a certain subject. The two most well-known monthly film magazines published in the UK are EMPIRE magazine (published by Bauer media) and Total Film (Published by Future Publishing). While the layouts are similar, both have distinct logo's. They will also have similar films on the cover of each issue, although this may differ depending on whether they have 'exclusives' on the cover film or another feature they wish to show off. These are more common in EMPIRE magazine, which often have 'On Set Exclusive's' and also regularly have features like the 'Top 500 movies' and 'icons of the decade' although Total Film also had the latter. This makes comparison more simple.

MAIN FILM: INCEPTION
Both Magazines featured Inception as one of their titles films. These are the covers:

The Total Film cover incorporates the film into the logo design, which may be because the EMPIRE logo is famous for it's red, while the Total Film will often change its design depending on the film, and both feature Leonardo Di Caprio. However, EMPIRE's photo looks posed specially for the magazine, while Total Films is photoshopped out of a film still. Both offer other features, such as other films and features, which are both different. EMPIRE's is part one of a two part piece on Alfred Hitchcock, while Total Film has 'the 27 most mind-blowing movies ever!'. The language describing the cover films both relate to dreams and the mind, due to the subject of the film being people inputting ideas into the subconscious. By both featuring the main character, they are hoping to sell the magazine on the main actor, as he has universal appeal, and to show that the narrative is directly related to Di Caprio's character (some covers feature multiple characters from the same film). Leonardo Di Caprio had also had another similar film, Shutter Island released, and so the parallels between the two could be drawn from the clothing and stance. The clothing shows that his character is an official or a spy, in a similar character to Bond, which may be why 007 is mentioned in the subtitle.

DIFFERING COVER FILMS:
A recent issue of EMPIRE featured David Fincher's adaption of 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', pictured below:

As it states on the graffiti, it is the only magazine on set. This means that Total Film's cover would feature a different film. The cover also features other parts to the magazine, such as a Steven Spielberg interview and credits other actors rather than directly referencing the films, possibly because more people know who (Justin) Timberlake is than what his new film (In Time) is called. These names, especially Speilberg's, will try to sell the film to those who don't want to read about the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In fact, the other films advertised are not even of the same genre (Superhero, Action, even Sports), and so these films cater to fans of those audiences The cover photo sets the films tone, and the characters are instantly recognisable to those who have read Stieg Larrson's novel. Salander is the 'icon' mentioned in the cover text, while Daniel Craig brings star power to the cover, and the film (before this, Rooney Mara's biggest film was 'The Social Network, also directed by Fincher, although she only had a small role). This guarantee's both fans of the books, who wish to see Salander's look in the series, and fans of Daniel Craig's films, such as Bond, will buy the magazine. As well as this, the title is quite large, and by the time this was released the series had got quite a lot of media attention, and so this could also get people to buy the issue.
Meanwhile Total Film chose to run with:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is featured, but they chose to have a feature (a preview of films being made) rather than focus on one specific film. The lighting makes the main three images look photo-shopped rather than posed, however, they used stills for the other films. Unlike EMPIRE, it is only that feature that is advertised, although it contains ten films according to the cover. By focussing on a franchise (Mission Impossible), a 'masculine' film (Immortals), and an adaptation of a popular series of novels (the Hunger Games) it can attract all types of audiences, like EMPIRE mentioning other film genres on it's Dragon Tattoo cover. Unusually, the barcode/publisher logo is in the bottom centre rather than on either side, although this can be explained by the banner location, rather than trying to get away from magazine conventions. The word coolest makes the average reader want to find out what these films are, as many people will want to find out what has made the list. This type of feature normally drives up sales, for this reason. The background lighting draws attention particularly to the character from Immortals, which may not be the most well known of the three main films.