Should I Sit Through the Movie’s Closing Credits?

The film has ended, but the names of the many people who worked on it are rolling across the screen. Do you stick around?

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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.

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.