What do film posters on city walls tell us about the relationship between the cinema and the city? In this paper, I rely on the practice and perspective of young men who put up film posters on Dhaka's city walls to explore this question. I argue that the wall is a key site for the production of a cinematic public that does not map onto film audiences; for the experience of newness in the city and of the cinema as analogous experiences; and for an encounter with imagery that is considered luminous and intense, assailing the crowds that pass by the posters in the congested city.