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Michael,
There is a great source for on-line NSS numbers -- that is at www.learnaboutmovieposters.com
-- although it is not absolutely "complete" there is a huge amount of them
there. Bruce Hershenson has also announced that "someday" he will take all the
NSS information he has accumulated over the years and put out a book -- that
would sure be welcomed in this hobby/industry.
As for knowing "for sure" what types of posters were produced for each
film, that is more problematic, but the same site listed above has a searchable
database of posters that contains a huge amount of examples for many films
(including non-US versions of the posters). Ed and Sue are working every day to
add more information and images to this database. It is an incredibly handy
reference and it's free to use.
The pressbooks are your most complete source on what types were
printed for a given film, but of course, coming up with a pressbook for a
specific title on short notice is not very easy to do. However, for most US
studio releases from the 40's through the 1960's you are reasonably safe
assuming that ALL sizes from lobby cards / window cards on up through at least 3
sheets and probably 6 sheets were produced --although often the actual number of
the very large posters was very limited compared to the other sizes. By the
1970's they were starting to cut back on the 3 and 6 sheets, but all of the
other sizes continued to be produced. By the 1980's that started to change. With
the exception of some 30x40 "drive-in" posters the large formats were being
replaced by banners (4x8, 4x10, 4x12 and even longer) and by those "stand-up"
displays you often see in the megaplex lobbies. Half-sheets were pretty much
done for -- and we saw the appearance in the US of the large, variable size
"bus stop" posters (they had been around longer in Europe as "subway posters).
By the 1990's the insert and half sheet were gone, along with the window cards,
leaving one sheets and lobby cards -- and even the lobby cards have been fading
rapidly.
The above is the long answer to your question, which is that there is a
good, free on-line resource for much of this information but no, there is not
(as of yet) any single source for all of it.
-- JR
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