Movies never used to have end credits that went on forever. There was a time when even the biggest blockbusters merely had a “the end” at the end, and it was all over. Or perhaps a brief cast of characters. Nowadays you can stay in your seat for several minutes watching dozens and dozens of credits roll by. I don’t think the moviemakers want to leave out the most minor contributors. When exactly did the closing credits grow to enormous lengths, and what are some of the first examples of these movies?
When movies started become nine-figure investments. Disney/Marvel had to introduce special scenes to keep people in their seats for ten or fifteen minutes! A friend and I watched THE DUELLISTS, the debut film from Ridley Scott. We watched the end credits guessing at locations and we were struck by how few people made that movie. Granted, THE DUELLISTS cost less than $1 million to make.
Many roles behind the camera that were once done by one or two people are now being done by large departments with a hierarchy of employees. For example you won't have a makeup person and a makeup assistant. You'll have a makeup person and multiple assistants for each of the leading actors. Although this is unrelated, it reminded me of what Matthew Howe said in his hilarious book Film is Hell: How I Sold My Soul to Make the Crappiest Movies in History. The independent studio he was working for was making cheap action movies mostly for foreign television. The only requirement is that the movie be long enough to fill up enough air time. Sometimes the movie would run a little short, so they'd end the movie with three or four minutes of credits full of completely fictitious names working in made up departments.
The Special Edition of The Abyss on laserdisc. Cameron had the credits slowed down so they can actually be read after the theatrical version had them sped up so fast that it was impossible to read them if someone wanted to. The theatrical end credits were just under 5 minutes. The Special Edition is almost 10 minutes long.
Who gets their name in movie credits are often dictated by semi-standardized contracts drawn up by various unions and guilds. Also, I'd imagine if a visual effects house, or sound studio, is contracted out to do work, there are probably negotiations on if individuals in the company are named, or if it just says "Effects by Weta Workshop" PIXAR is somewhat famous for putting everyone in the company in the credits, including baristas, janitors and security staff, which is kinda neat.
They've been gradually getting longer over the last 60 years or so, but it seems to me they really expanded in duration when the use of third-party CGI VFX services became a necessity. Nowadays there can be several VFX companies involved in producing a film, frequently resulting in lengthy staff credits for each vendor.
The earliest example I can remember of overly long end (& opening) credits was "Superman-The Movie" (1978)
I don't know when, but I've been ranting about it for years. See the thread on Award Culture in Off-Topic. https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thre...onal-perspectives-especially-welcome.1069103/ One aspect that has been discussed is the role of unions.
And on an opposite note, why are credits run at all after a cable show? They roll on ridiculously fast. The point?
I believe that is the correct answer. Director Richard Donner basically said, "I don't want to just give the department heads credit -- I want all the regular workers to get an on-screen credit as well," and so they were all named. As a result, the credits ran 8 minutes, which was unprecedented at the time. By comparison, the 1977 Star Wars end titles -- which came the year before -- clocked in at "only" 4-1/2 minutes. Note that hundreds and hundreds of people have always worked on movies, but the difference is that with the studio system, just the department head and supervisors got credit. So instead of 20 sound people, it'd be just one or two guys. Some TV shows are doing this now as well: the Marvel end credits for WandaVision listed over 1300 names, last time I checked. (But that's a TV show that costs $15 million dollars per episode.) For anybody who dislikes long end credits: remember, you can always just leave the theater or turn your TV off if you don't like them. Bear in mind that for people who work in movies & TV, getting your name in the end credits is a badge of honor, and it helps you get that next job.
Some films have gag reels or outtakes after the credits have rolled, and I always stick around, hoping those will show up. Like the end of Ferris Buellar - "Wait..you're still here? Go home..it's over!"
Something similar happened to the British TV show Thriller when it was sold to the US. Each episode ran somewhat longer than the usual TV hour, about 65 minutes, and so the US sellers dropped the series title and converted them into separate "movies." To help pad them to an adequate TV-movie length, they made completely new title sequences for each episode. Without exception the "movie titles" were cheap and nasty and extremely slow, with the credit crawl shown in full over the opening and closing titles.
Maybe it's a union thing... Think of those poor people who worked for Mack Sennet and Walt Disney...... If you walked around, and said, "I worked on that.", and everybody was like, "Sure, you did.."
Could be worse... there was a time when all the credits were at the beginning of the movie!! I'm sure that was one 'tradition' that wasn't used in "Mank"!
I never minded the credits because of that reason. Whoever worked on a film should be acknowledged. What bothers me is when those credits are followed by 30 screens of FBI warnings in many languages.
I can understand giving credit to the laborers and behind the scenes crew who help make the movie what it is. But do we really need to know who the catering company or the accountant’s assistant is? I suppose listing the names of some of these collateral participants means the producers get a discount or something.
Ridiculously fast, and squashed into a corner, or the bottom of the screen while they play the opening of the next show. Not even remotely readable.
I also love the “production babies” naming the Pixar staff’s kids who were born during the production of the movie. A sweet touch. dan c
