A few days ago, James Mangold let his feeling fly in regards to end-credits scenes in movies, which have become popularized in comic book movies over the last ten years. The director and now Oscar nominee (scripting for LOGAN) made some passionate arguments against what he considers to be a “f**king embarrassing” element in the modern moviemaking machine. His words went viral, and now he’s taken to social media to further explain his feelings about end-credit stingers, even now having heard plenty of arguments from the other side of the aisle. In short, he still doesn’t care for them, and you can even throw Easter eggs on the pile.
Here are his comments via Twitter
In Mangold’s original comments he said, “Now we've actually gotten audiences addicted to a fucking bonus in the credits. It's fucking embarrassing. It means you couldn't land your fucking movie is what it means. Even if you got 100,000 Twitter addicts who are gambling on what fucking scene is going to happen after the fucking credits it's still cheating.”
The filmmaker makes some good points, especially when it comes to the argument that people are becoming addicted to the end-credit stuff. Comic books movies often have them, but now people just assume that’s how credits end for all movies. I know this because I worked at a theater a few years ago, and patrons would stay until the credits ended for any sort of big-budget movie. They had just become conditioned to think there was something at the end, sometimes asking “Is there anything at the end?” Upon saying no, they would scoff and walk out, thus saying without words, “Pssh, who wants to look at a bunch of boring names without a prize at the end?”
For fans like myself, little scenes at the end of movies can be fun little additions that are simply there as a funny add-on or can get you excited for the next movie, which is something comics books have done at the end of issues for ages. But Mangold does make some good cases, and you really should watch the credits simply to recognize all the people who worked so hard on the movie – regardless of if there’s a toy at the bottom of the box. We should watch movies in the moment, and not worry about what sort of tease is coming and what it may mean for the next movie, even if we're dying to know what that movie has in store. Of course, exceptions will always be made whenever FERRIS BUELLER is referenced.