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Q: Is it morally correct to stay seated until the end of the credits in a cinema?
I’ve thought about this question my entire adult life! I think a lot of other people have, too. But to answer it, we have to think about what movie credits do, and why they’re there at all.
The stayers and the leavers
There are two schools of thought here, both of which, I think, are pretty reasonable.
On the one hand are the “stayers.” I used to be one. When my partner and I began seeing movies together, I was often writing about them, and he was working in film production, so we had two good reasons to stick around. We felt it was a way of honoring and celebrating all the people who pitch in to make a movie. Filmmaking is inherently collaborative, more than most arts, and even the office assistants toward the end of the credits sequences (especially the office assistants) deserve acknowledgment for doing a stressful, surprisingly difficult job.
And let’s be honest — we also stayed to the end because it was fun to spot our friends’ names in the credits.
Over time, though, I’ve become more of a “leaver,” for a few practical reasons. I often see several movies in a day, and I’ve got to get across town for the next one. Sometimes I really need to use the bathroom. And in this era of ultra-budget productions and mega-effects-driven movies, those credits can go on for 10 or 15 minutes, especially when you add in post-credits scenes.
This was not always the case. “End credits” weren’t really a common thing in American film until the late 1960s, when a much larger number of people involved in the production began getting credit for their work in the movie itself. Before then, there were usually a few title cards that announced major cast and crew credits. Adding the monkey wranglers and location scouts and drivers and production interns results in longer credits.
Do the studios want you to watch?
When I think about this question, I’m struck by how the cultural import of credits has shifted in recent years. Here’s what I mean.
It does seem like studios want you to watch all the credits, at least for their biggest movies. How can I tell? Because movies from Marvel and DC insert scenes after the credits roll that fill in key details about an upcoming sequel, or contain Easter eggs for fans of the franchise. Not everyone will stay, but people invested in the ongoing story will. And in a theater, you can’t just fast-forward through the credits to watch that post-credits scene.
When I stick around for those, I always learn something. I see the names of “production babies” or the dogs that hung around the office, reminding me that these are real people who made this movie. I might also realize, queasily, how many corporations outsource postproduction to cheaper labor elsewhere.
But have you noticed that streaming services (even those owned by those same studios) seemingly discourage you from watching closing credits? If I’m trying to read the credits on, say, Netflix or Max, I’d better have my remote control at the ready. Otherwise, the second the movie is done, the image shrinks to a tiny unreadable corner of the screen and a countdown clock to something the algorithm thinks I’ll like begins. It’s a panicked scramble every time.
It’s as if they’re saying that they have to run the credits, but they know we don’t care about the people involved. The goal seems to be to make it as hard as possible to see them.
This makes me mad, but it also worries me. There’s a real move in Hollywood studios to cut out as much human labor as possible through the use of A.I. tools. If you can’t even read the credits — will you know?
The film “Heretic,” starring Hugh Grant, has this line in its credits: “No generative A.I. was used in the making of this film.” I can easily foresee a future in which that line carries a great deal of meaning. If that happens, I might want to stick around to the end anyhow.
You don’t have to stay, but you might want to
You asked if you have a moral duty to watch the end credits of a movie. No, you don’t. There’s no right answer here. But in an age in which human labor — especially on movies made by huge corporations — is being systematically devalued, you might want to. You may even want to clap.
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