In order for there to be a Felix the Cat and a Snow White and a Star Trek, the world had to first gaze upon a group of Frenchmen in a rocket ship famously plunging into the eye of the man in the moon.

French filmmaker George Méliès created Earth’s first science fiction film “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902 — a silent short feature that pioneered animation and special effects techniques. It also became the world’s first global movie sensation, and was widely bootlegged. One of the most famous piraters was Sigmund Lubin, famous for selling the first commercial movie projector and infamous for plagiarizing other people’s movies. He brazenly showed Méliès film in the U.S. as his own, prompting the Frenchman to cross the Atlantic to pursue legal action, which helped set many of today’s copyright laws into motion. (Thomas Edison also wrangled with Lubin in the courts.)

A 1914 poster promoting A Trip to the Moon as Lubin’s own creation is currently on sale – a rare commodity as few posters from those very early days of cinema have survived at all. Images on eBay are small and low-quality, as the seller wants to keep it from being widely reproduced.

Shepop  wants $450,000 or your best offer for this piece of film history.

Visit the A Trip to the Moon movie poster auction.