Extra credit, at a theater near you.

The closing credits in movies are becoming mini-epics in their own right. Credits for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, clocked in at a whopping 9 minutes 33 seconds. They included the names of all the actors, producers, editors, gaffers, grips, best boys, dialect coaches, steelworkers, wig makers, horse-makeup artists, horseshoers, and even the two guys in charge of the chain mail. In the early history of motion pictures, credits were usually at the beginning of movies and rarely lasted more than two minutes. But by the late 1960s and 1970s, credits had grown so long that filmmakers began to shift most of them to the end giving credits the freedom to grow even longer. The original Star Wars in 1977 listed 143 people in its credits. In 1999, The Matrix listed 551. In big-budget movies, stars often win screen credits for their entourages. In Master and Commander, the list of attendants to Russell Crowe includes his costumer, hairstylists, a makeup artist, a stunt double, a stand in, a trainer, a dialect coach, a swordmaster, three violin coaches, two assistants, and the company that provided his security.

Circle size is in proportion to the number of names in each film's
credits

Modern Times             1936       30
Casablanca               1942       39
On the Waterfront        1954       36
The Graduate             1967       55
Star Wars                1977      143
The Lord of the Rings    2003    1,706

SOURCES: BASELINE/FILMTRACKER; NEW LINE
CINEMA; GRAPHIC: THE NEW YORK TIMES