Order of Credits in Opening Scenes

COMMON OPENING CREDITS ORDER:

• (NAME OF THE STUDIO) or (NAME OF THE STUDIO) PRESENTS

Name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (e.g. Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, Marvel Entertainment)

• (NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)

Name of the production company that actually made the film or name of the investment groups/companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with" or "A (studio name) production").

• POSSESSORY CREDIT/S

The primary artistic credit for the film. Generally the film director, but sometimes the producer or writer. Normally stylized "A film by (name)" or "A (name) film". Sometimes placed before a title (e.g. "Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho").

• STARRING

Principal actors (sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be reversed, depending on the star's deal with the studio; in other cases, as in many Disney films, the title of the film will be shown before the names of its actors; sometimes, the name(s) of the principal actor(s) will be shown before the name(s) of the producer(s) (i.e. "The Canon Group presents X in a Golan-Globus production of a Y film").

• (FILM'S TITLE)

Name of the film.

• FEATURING or WITH or ALSO STARRING

Featured actors.

• CASTING or CASTING BY

Casting Director.

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY

Composer of music.

• VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCER or VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR
• COSTUME DESIGN or COSTUME DESIGNER

• EDITOR or EDITED BY

Film Editor.

• PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER
• DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
• PRODUCER or PRODUCED BY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by' (credited for various reasons according to contracts and scrutiny of the principal producer). Often though, the name of the producer will be the second-to-last opening credit, just before the writer's name(s) are shown.

• BASED ON THE (BOOK, PLAY, GRAPHIC NOVEL etc.) BY (X) or FROM A PLAY/BOOK BY (older movies)

If based on a book or other literary work.

• BASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY or BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY

If based on characters from a book or other media.

• (SCREEN) STORY or STORY BY

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story.

• WRITER(S) or WRITTEN BY or SCREENPLAY or SCREENPLAY BY

Screenplay writers. The Writers Guild of America allows only three writing credits on a feature film, although teams of two are credited as one. If each works independently on the script (the most common system), they are separated by an "and". If more than two persons worked on the screenplay, the credits may read something like "screenplay by X & Y and Z and W" X and Y worked as a team, but Z and W worked separately.

• DIRECTOR or DIRECTED BY

The Directors Guild of America usually permits a film to list only one director, even when it is known that two or more worked on it. Exceptions are made in rare cases such as a death, and subsequent replacement of the director mid-production,and for established directing teams such as the Coen brothers

While there are many ways to structure the opening credits, most use some variation of the basic order. In the absence of opening credits, these roles will often be credited in reverse order at the beginning of the closing credits.