Great Movie Opening Credits Sequences

Georgy Girl (1966)

Female Trouble (1974)

Turns out the lyrics are the only original part of the song the music track is borrowed from a song called “Black Velvet Soul”.

Foxy Brown (1974)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

The Killing of Sister George (1968)

Superman (1978):

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Urban Cowboy (1980)

Vertigo

Jackie Brown

R8

I could have sworn the song “Hello, Texas” was in the opening credits but I haven’t seen the movie since it came out. Also, Houston looked so tiny back then.

Il Buono, Il Brutto e Il Cattivo

Always had a sift spot for this one. WHERE'S THAT JOE BUCK??

Bond has alot of great ones but I think this one was the most beautiful

Flash (a-Ah) Gordon

Sorry wrong link

Easy glamour for Imitation of Life

Saturday Night Fever

Alien (1979)

It made space scary.

Glitch LONG before every other movie and TV series did glitch. Videodrome

Grease, Superman 1978, (both 1978 actually) the first year i was taken to the cinema...tho i was too young for Grease, untill VHS.

Jaws - The shark's first kill.

The Trouble With Angels

DEVIL (2010)

Honestly the most beautiful one and so incredibly ahead of it's time.

The original West Side Story.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World.

The opening credits to “Troop Beverly Hills” are the only good thing about the movie.

Disney’s “The North Avenue Irregulars” had a fun opening credits sequence which was not done in the Disney house style.

Ruthless People

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Auntie Mame

Manhattan - I saw it in a large theater with a wide screen and great sound. Spectacular

Super-dramatic and arresting--"Fahrenheit 451."

If only the whole movie were up to the level of the title sequence.

Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Is this an annual thread, though?

The Tender Trap

Walk on the Wild Side - the black cat was the best thing in the movie

Trying to play sheriff, r34?

Wait! Has no one said PSYCHO yet?

The Great Race

Star Wars.

The music. The opening crawl.

Watchmen

Casino Royale (1967)

The ominous chords instead of the usual Fox fanfare signifies something lusciously and deadly lurid .....

Catch Me if You Can

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977):

Actually, here is the complete main title sequence for Close Encounters:

Why bother, r47?

Arthur (1981):

Blood Simple (1984)

Perhaps, R48, but I always found that opening music very ominous for what was just a sci-fi film and not a horror flick.

from Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me, Deadly featuring Cloris Leachman in her film debut

The Return of the Pink Panther… a masterpiece by animator extraordinaire Richard Williams, who along with his team created over 6,000 drawings by hand to make the 4-minute long title sequence.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I've always considered this the ultimate.

I always wondered if when the film had its first run many decades ago the ending got a big laugh.

The Age of Innocence, with that dark ominous for Gounod's "Faust," and the handwriting and lace patterns superimposed over the blossoming flowers as if to imprison them.

Lady & The Tramp

DEAD AGAIN

It gets so much exposition out of the way, in addition to being very tense : )

My favorite James Bond title sequence: the second Casino Royale

Another of my favorites and the designer and composer get no credit! Unless I blinked.

[quote] Lady & The Tramp

Oh, look--another Tramp thread.

Panic room

Thomas crown affair

Charade

Star Wars (1977):

[quote] Another of my favorites and the designer and composer get no credit! Unless I blinked.

Doesn't everyone know the composer? Camille Saint-Saens.

Planet of the Apes

Of course I know The Aquarium. Still Saint Saens should have gotten credit for his gorgeous music and like the title sequence in other films the individual/s should have been in the credits. And you think most people when the film was made and today know who Saint Saens is?

Chill out, r68. You're taking this as some sort of personal attack.

That was not an attack on you. It was responding to the fact that many people today neither know such music or its composer.

Charade

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Flower Drum Song

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

The Women

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

I think Dracula qualifies.

Saint-Saëns and the title designer Daniel Perri both had to wait till the closing credits to get their due.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Breakfast At Tiffany's - pretty iconic.

Death Becomes Her

My Best Friend's Wedding

I remember my sister dragged me kicking and screaming to see it back in the day, but after the opening credits, I became invested in the movie.

Murder On the Orient Express has an opening sequence that uses headlines to address the backstory (like r58) but it’s immediately following the opening credits.

It’s an effective, ominous technique.

North by Northwest, great graphics by Saul Bass and score by Bernard Hermann.

Ordinary People

An Unmarried Woman

Saving Private Ryan. I mean, come on.

R74 there are no credits.

Napoleon Dynamite

Norma Rae

Footloose and the opening had nothing to do with the movie.

Delightful opening to World According to Garp, which is now controversial because it showed a baby's penis......sigh.

The Owl and the Pussycat.

Watching some of these postings: I SO LOVED 70s movies!!!

What's Up, Doc?

Fast Times at Ridgenont High. Meet all the characters.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Friday the 13th Part III's opening credits is high camp

You know it’s this

I like the one for The Wrong Man with the Bernard Herrmann music and the crowd slowly emptying from The Stork Club.

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

A terrible movie but I enjoy the credits with mid 60s Johnny Williams pop music.

And coming in at #100 - BARBARELLA !!!

[Quote] Jaws - The shark's first kill.

The first kill doesn’t happen during the opening credits.

I thought the opening of Flashdance really set the table for the movie without showing any dancing.

I wonder if Jennifer had a double riding the bike too?

R103, that is indeed Marina Jahan doing the bike riding as well. I always thought the movie needed a stronger dancer, like a Sandahl Bergman but then who would have played Alex?

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

[quote]Jaws - The shark's first kill.

The first kill doesn’t happen during the opening credits.

R101 This is one of the great opening scenes. You're correct, it's not an opening credit, but SHIT it's a great scene.

[italic]Hellzapoppin'[/italic].

Why the hell does How to Marry a Millionaire open with that overture before the credits?

EYE OF THE CAT has a great credits sequence, but I couldn't find it on YouTube, just the first 59 seconds of the opening sequence before the credits.

The movie was awful but I liked the main titles and the orchestration of the main theme.

Anatomy of a Murder, also 1959 and also Saul Bass. The opening music is by Duke Ellington. Astounding.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Why the hell does How to Marry a Millionaire open with that overture before the credits?

R108 - that used to be a thing. I can name other movies with the same.

No "Death Becomes Her"

Between the visuals and the music by John Williams, the credits for SUPERMAN (1978) are indeed really well done and exciting. So much so that I think the filmmakers realized that sequence is one of the best parts of that movie, which is rather a mess overall, so they allowed the credit sequence to go on for quite a long time.

[quote]Why the hell does How to Marry a Millionaire open with that overture before the credits?

I believe they thought adding an overture like that made the movie seem like more of an "event," also they wanted to show off the new stereophonic sound and widescreen formats.

Simple, but very beautiful and emotionally effective (and affective). It's all about the clouds, the cool typeface of the credits, the gorgeous music and the wordless chorus.

The original WEST SIDE STORY has no opening credit sequence. The movie opens with a lengthy overture accompanying that abstract design that turns into the lower Manhattan skyline, ending with a pullback to reveal only the title of the movie, and the very lengthy credit sequence is at the end.

Also, the beginning of ORDINARY PEOPLE as linked to above is very beautiful, but that is also not an opening credits sequence.

[Bold]Ghost World[/bold] (2001)

My ex, a Mumbai native, was shocked to encounter a song from his childhood when we saw the film (at a theater back then).

The incredibly moving opening of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is also not a "credits sequence."

The opening credits of 1978's Superman. I saw this movie on the big screen when I was 15, and there was something so thrilling about seeing the actors' names come shooting onto the screen with that "wooshing" sound accompanied by John Williams' great score.

It was great r121 but, at the time, seeing the name Ned Beatty get that treatment, gave me the giggles.

R122 Ned Beatty had been nominated for an Oscar the previous year.

You didn't get the giggles when Valerie Perrine's name came soaring out of the screen?

[quote]My ex, a Mumbai native, was shocked to encounter a song from his childhood when we saw the film (at a theater back then).

I've watched Ghost World often...????

[quote]r123 You didn't get the giggles when Valerie Perrine's name came soaring out of the screen?

The star billing for those credits make them really fucked up. Marlon Brando (who appears briefly) and Gene Hackman above the title, Christopher Reeve third (which is fine, considering), but then Margot Kidder is lost way down the list somewhere[bold] : ( [/bold]

She should have been pulled up out of the muck of all the alphabetized cast, and put right after Reeve.

The titles of Hitchcock's underrated I CONFESS (1953) always gave me a creepy feeling!

R125 The stars who got paid the most got top billing. Brando was paid millions for what was basically a cameo. Reeve was virtually unknown at the time, and though Margot had appeared in a number of films, she wasn't a leading lady at the time.

Not necessarily, R127, it's what their agents can get.

Case in point, All the President's Men (1976). Two big stars - Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. in the ad, Redford is billed first, but Hoffman's IMAGE is first (left) in the ad. When you watch the actual movie, you'll see HOFFMAN's name is top billed over Redford's. With other movies, sometimes the second billed actor's name is higher if they're billed side by side. As far as money goes, in The Way We Were, Redford was paid almost twice what Streisand was paid, but her name is billed first in the ads and the movie. She was a far bigger star than he at the time, the movie wouldn't have been made without her participation.

R128 I'm not talking about how all movie credits work; I'm talking about how they worked for Superman.

R125 At least Margot didn't have to share her credit with somebody else on the screen like poor Jimmy Olsen had to.

R129, have you read R127? He said “the stars who got paid most get top billing.” In the case of Superman, Brando had the most name recognition, that’s the only reason he’s billed above the others.

BATMAN RETURNS (1992)

This 2018 article mentions that Brando and Hackman are above the title because signing them is what got the project financed.

R133. Yep. Because they got the most money.

Brando and Hackman were also established Oscar-winners and more popular/famous than Christopher Reeve, who was a relative newcomer.

Same reason why Jack Nicholson received top billing in BATMAN (1989) over Michael Keaton.

Looking for Mr Goodbar

"All That Jazz"

R126 that IS creepy.

Psycho.

It's amazing how an animated series of simple horizontal and vertical lines, accompanied by a frenetic musical score, can instill such a sense of tension and fear before the movie even starts.

R139 Saul Bass was a master. His opening credits sequence for Anatomy of a Murder is great, too.

“The Learning Tree” (1969)

My absolute favorite opening credits for a movie is the original Men in Black:

R136 Good choice. That one is my choice for best trailer of all time:

One of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned: "Howards End," with the gorgeous Percy Grainger music as Vanessa Redgrave wanders through the gloaming looking like a goddess, watching her awful family (whom she absolutely adores) talking in the drawing room of her titular house.

R79, that's a good call. I'd forgotten that one.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” intro was perfection.

Charade, Funny Face and Flower Drum Song are some of my favorite film openings

The Shining, so simple yet unnerving, aided immeasurably by Wendy Carlos' score.

The Doris Day-Rock Hudson ones were good. But my all time fave is Charade.

Goldfingah!

R139 Wow! I never knew Joey Stefano started out as a screenwriter.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm also resurrecting it.

This is one of the greatest closing credits sequences of any movie. The images of the characters with the fireworks and how they match to the music is really sensational.

It also works as a perfect ending for a very emotionally walloping film.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm also resurrecting it.

This is one of the greatest closing credits sequences of any movie. The images of the characters with the fireworks and how they match to the music is really sensational.

It also works as a perfect ending for a very emotionally walloping film.

(oops! I had forgotten to link).

Thanks, R152, but I guess you forgot to include a link or at least the title of the movie. Try again?

Psycho

Always loved this opening...

r156 And introducing Tom Bosley ... as COLUMBO!

The "Deadpool" credits set the tone perfectly and I'm still not sure how they pulled off the visuals.

Trainspotting

The composer of Cat needed another agent.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

The Hunger opening credit — David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve gliding through a nightclub in high 1980s haute couture while Peter Murphy croons 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'? Untouchable. It’s like stumbling into a sexy, dark MTV video before the movie even starts.

Chef's kiss.

R162 This is one of the best opening sequences ever made. Dark, mysterious, sexy, and then shockingly violent.

Baisers Volés (1968)

They’re called TITLES, not opening credits.

R165 Both are correct, dear.

[quote] Opening CREDITS, also known as opening titles, are the text displayed at the beginning of a film or television show. They typically list the main cast and crew, including actors, directors, producers, and other key personnel, and often incorporate visuals and music to set the tone and mood of the production.

[quote]They’re called TITLES, not opening credits.

The most accurate term is "main title sequences."

How to Steal a Million

"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" by Bernard Herrmann.

R169. My favorite film of all time. The music is beautifully melancholy and, in a word, haunting.