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Why is every person involved in a movie listed in the credits? (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Echinoderm@aussie.zone to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Movies have huge credit rolls that tell you everyone involved from the director down to the person who made the cups of tea. But why? I can understand why actors, who need exposure to maintain a career, would want this. But is it important for the person who drove the truck full of props around to be credited for their future prospects?

You don't see a plaque when you walk into a building listing everyone who laid a brick as part of the construction. I assume there's a historical reason why the entertainment industry, and only the entertainment industry does this.

Edit: To all those that took my geniune question about what historically lead to this, and turned it into accusations of me being some sort of thoughtless "asshole", what is even the point of someone trying to contribute to these online communities if you are just going to be made to feel horrible?

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[-] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago

I assume there's a historical reason why the entertainment industry

Yep. From what I've read it started out as "This studio made the film". But then you got celebrities who were part of the studio. The studio used credits to engage the audience and remind them why they are there "Studio presents Movie starring Celebrity".

Eventually other people behind the camera wanted acknowledgement so directors and producers got in. Writers and others who were unionized wanted to be included. And eventually it became to industry standard. So that's now just how it's done. It's probably also easy proof that you worked on a project.

Is it important to note the person who drove the props? I don't know. I don't think it was a question they were asking when they decided the standard. It was in the contract, they were making credits anyways, it wasnt worth fighting over.

[-] dumples@midwest.social 7 points 6 days ago

Also to note here. The credits used to be at the start of a film. Since it was at the beginning there were typically less people credited becaue there was less time. (You obviously didn't want to make people wait too long to see the film but long enough they could get into the theater with their snacks). Once it moved to the end, there was no reason to not include everyone.

This is also why we got the post credit teaser or scene which was a directors way to force the audience to see the whole credits

[-] everett@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago

In the beginning the studios even tried to hide who the actors were, crediting them under character names owned by the studio. Some of the biggest stars of the day started United Artists offering artists more freedom and recognition, and the studios eventually realized that by letting the actors be known as people, their celebrity (and sometimes even scandal) would actually generate interest in movies.

this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025

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