What Happened to Intro Credits? 

12:10 Interestingly, the biggest movie of 1989 - Tim Burton's Batman - had a downright old-fashioned and slow moving credits sequence... but powered by an overture so great that it launched Danny Elfman straight into the big leagues. Although for peak Burton-Elfman collabs, I think that Mars Attacks! has one of the best opening titles in history. Absolutely pitch-perfect mood setting.

My favorite opening credits as a kid were the opening sequences for the Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers.

These parts were some of the best parts of the movies, and how they get me pumped for the movie I’m about to see.

Fight Club and Spiderman 2's intro credits have always been my personal favourites

Another reason for intro credits’ near disappearance is probably IMDB. Back in the old days, titles were the only way to find out who did what. Now you don’t have to sit and watch them before the movie, because anyone with a phone can google the info as the movie plays. Kinda sad, though I’m guilty as well. Because of this, the credits are all stuck at the end as an obligation, like the copyright notice.

The opening credits for Watchmen is just pure ✨CINEMA✨ It's the best part of the movie for me

Ive always liked intro credits. I feel like it gets me hyped a little bit more before the start.

Great video. I love intro credits in general. The more depth a story has the more creative intro credits can get. Conversely for a shallow run of the mill LA based comedies intro credits can be short and can just blend in with the opening scenes. I really like the intro credits of Netflix’s Daredevil, HBO’s True Blood, all the James Bond movies, and ever changing themes of the Warner Bros logo in Harry Potter movies. You’re right about short attention spans. These days we are stripping movies of all the details to keeping them short and we keep wondering why it turned out the way it did. And flock to fan theories and interviews to understand the movie.

The Fight Club intro credits have been a longtime fave

The intro credits and the song to Casino Royale. I can watch that multiple times before I even start the movie. It’s so wonderful. New subscriber here, I’m addicted to your videos.

Love the intro credits so much also intro credits are basically like an anime intro they tell a story of their own and may give away hints or maybe the entire story.

Anecdotally, it seems more is put into end credits, especially in family films. I watched "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" today. That was a great intro. I like "Desperate Housewives" illustrates sort of an "ongoing, unending reality." I think "Mad Men" is great: the Saul Bass-inspired intro gives an era, the industry, the sex, the conflicts.

Some of my favourites are Halloween 3, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Spider-Man 2, Mars Attacks.

Love an overture! Melancholia has a great one (using an actual operatic prelude). Tar's opening credits also use music brilliantly, setting the tone with almost no visuals. Maybe that's just because I love opera. I also appreciate how many people are included in especially older intro credits. As many people who contributed to the movie should get their time in the sun before we even get going. I wanna know who's about to blow my mind with those costumes or who's the reason I can hear anything. Fantastic video, thank you!

My favortite intro credits as a kid were from The 101 Dalmatians and Monsters INC. I've always thought they were so fun and creative

Even if it’s not the best movie, Lord of War has one of the greatest intro credit sequences ever. I wholly endorse intro credits in anything

i honestly don't often think about intro credits, not to say they can't be really impactful or interesting sometimes, i just rarely remember them after a film or show has ended, i think the intro's to video games have often stuck with me more, but i agree they shouldn't go away entirely

I'm one of those people who generally don't like intro credits and I've been known to skip or fast forward them. Talking about intro credits makes me think of a few things, but mostly TV shows, probably because I see them many more times than movie ones. Tru Blood's are hard to forget, especially the decomposing fox. The X Files still gives me chills because of the music. The Friends song still cheers me up. Oh the into riff to the song in Buffy's credits. Scrubs started a trend of super short credits. Then they doubled down and shortened them even further a few seasons in. MASH...Hmm, I'm realising that a massive part of the opening credits is the music.

I'm commenting at the 2:43 minute mark here, but as soon as I saw the design on the credits of Man with the Golden Arm, and I haven't seen the movie yet, I said Saul Bass. That is how wonderful, iconic and important intro credits are. I love a good credit intro and always enjoy them, and especially when you see the artistry involved - like Bass here. Think of the wonderful intro to North by Northwest, which surely inspired Fincher for the wonderful intro to Panic Room. Think of the plain but highly effective credits to Psycho, again Bass, or the hypnotic and slightly off kilter credits to Vertigo. You cannot imagine a Bond movie without it's credit sequence set to the theme. The list is endless. I always appreciate and enjoy a good credit sequence and hopefully they never go out of style. I also think that as modern commercial cinema is geared towards young males, that it's about attention spans and just getting quickly to the action. It's a great shame. I'm an aspiring filmmaker and will most definitely put the effort into the credit sequence - if not also as recognition for all the crew's efforts. My favourite movie ( probably 100 viewings at least) is Blue Velvet. When I think of those beautiful credits appearing on the moving blue velvet backdrop to Badalamenti's score, it gives me goosebumps, seriously. This is a wonderful video by the way and your channel is very interesting and informative, and entertaining of course. I just watched the one about Kinski and Herzog. I'll be subscribing for sure - keep up the amazing work.

How about the intro credits to Pixar's Monsters Inc? They did a nice job of setting the tone of the film. I just now thought of this, but you might say they foreshadowed the character Mike Wazowski as a lover of the art of Theater.

I like intro credits when done well, creatively, of course. I like this what you're hitting on here, and I always love the intro to Superman The Movie way back when. They're soooo loooong, but that John Williams music is so epic, that in that case they are awesome. It works, and works well. Another example for me is Blade Runner. Long opening, awesome music, interesting images...love it. The James Bond films have often had such great intros.

Another fantastic Fincher intro is the one for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the movie.

You deserve more subs! This is not very talked about, but still you talk about this,and this is very nice! Also congrats for 25k 👏

This channel is wildly underrated

My favorite is the Buffy intro. With the intro the first thing you hear is the sound of a wolf howling but than you hear rock music through the rest of the intro. The subtext being this show is about a girl, Buffy and her group of friends(The Scooby gang) fighting back the horrors of the night.

One of the best uses of intro credits to set the tone of a film was Thank You For Smoking. Everything from the visuals to the soundtrack gave you cues about the level of satire in the film. Even the title itself helped that along.

damn 25k already, nice going for you guys

Thanks for the interesting video (: I love the opening credits of Moon and Mulholland Drive!

Great video, thank you

You're videos are so much engaging

Fantastic video

Great job guys And Seven is one of the all-time greatest openings. Alien is a slow crawl which sets the pace and tone The Shining combines the credits with the shot of the yellow Beetle driving to the Overlook Hotel- the road seems to go and on and mixed with the creepy score by Wendy Carlos, THAT definitely sets a tone. It also establishes how far away from the nearest town they are when they get snowed in

Maybe if we didn't have like a bazillion previews and advertisements, they could bring back intro credits, But by the time the previews are finally over, people are already exhausted and just wants the movie to start!

Grind your way to a million you will get there

Intro credits should always be used .they set the stage for the movie and the music and tone is set at the start. Saul Bass and Maurice Binder come to mind.

The only movie ive watch for the past decade that still had intro cedits is Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, and it is glorious

You did miss singing through the Intro credits (see The Court Jester)

Thats actually a good question!

Intro credits if justified I'm fine with them. The higest grossed 2023 movie "Barbie" has intro credits which served for world building, though I wasn't expecting them because intro credits are almost non-existent now. "Barbie" is a comedy and most comedies have intro credits. With Barbie, the intro credits help to get you invested in the movie, but most films and genres don't need them, it could be distracting for the viewer. Long opening sequences that made an impact for me didn't have opening credits, you get sucked into the movie from the first frame, example: "Saving Private Ryan", "Interstellar", "Babylon", "Oppenheimer". Nolan is the master in doing this. From movies that have opening credits that stay in your mind forever, I think Tim Burton is great doing that. His opening credits alongside Danny Elfman score you just don't forget.

I first noticed this when I watched Spider-Man No Way Home, it just STARTED and WENT. No intro Credits.

The reason intro credits really got dropped is simple. In intro/opening credits, DIRECTED BY is last, after stars heads of production, in earlier films, after everything else. Put credits at the end.... DIRECTED (WRITTEN BY) name goes FIRST.

Dang I was hoping you were gonna mention Guy Ritchie's Snatch in the "Introducing Characters" section

Modern audience are just too anxious and too distracted to appreciate opening credits. IMO.

Napoleon Dynamite

To set the tone.

Charade (1963)

Trent Reznor is so awesome. K that’s all I wanted to say

Outdated, but should make a return.

Drive.

Star wars wasn't the first movie to begin with only the movie's title. West Side Story is one example this

American Psycho

Se7en was responsible for a plague of grunge intro credits, for the following years. Whatever the films, but a la Se7en...

I don't find intro credits look any good with new movies, because those titles are computer generated and movies are crammed with CGI and it's just CG overload.

they're gone because they're boring and annoying. just start the damn movie with something that matters to the plot. i think commenters who like these credits are confusing the issue, you seem to like the credits when they're integrated into the movie in a meaningful way and done artistically. but that's not how most were done, they were just a parade of names with bland background art and bland music there just to stroke the egos of wealthy producers.

I like your channel, man, but Se7evn is one of the worst movies of all time, like, its not even so bad its good, its just bad; opening credits included.

Spy Hard