If you’ve watched any movies or television made in the past ten or 15 years, you may have started to wonder: Where have all the opening credits gone? These days, filmmakers (and production studios, and streaming services) seem to think that if the audience isn’t immediately thrown into the action of a movie, they’ll get bored, turn it off, and find something else. Given our ever shortening attention spans, there may be some truth to this.
But a great opening credits sequence is something of a lost art. It’s indulgent, yes, and it forces the audience to sit there and look at a bunch of names for two or three minutes, but a really good title sequence can set the tone for the rest of the proceedings, and allow the members of the audience to gradually submerge themselves into the world of the story. Think of the way that the Game of Thrones credits not only showed you a moving map of Westeros, but also contained little clues about where certain scenes would take place, and “unlocked” locations as the story moved forward.
It wasn’t always like this — opening titles used to be everywhere, and the best ones would get creative with the form, using the allotted minute or two to fully generate a movie’s vibe using nothing but colors, abstract images, and creative fonts. There are way too many to choose from for just one list, but in order to highlight some of the very best, we chose 12 of the coolest, most innovative ones, from iconic crime movies, westerns, fantasy epics, horror thrillers, and modern spy cinema classics. Every single one of these opening sequences will make you want to watch the rest of the movie immediately.
The Coolest Opening Title Sequences of All Time
Where have all the opening credits gone?
(Note: Click the link in each entry to watch these opening titles on YouTube.)
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These movies are terrific. They’re not perfect, though.