Watching a few old films, where the titles folded away and we got straight into the movie, made me wonder when the lengthy self contained pre-title action sequence emerged as a thing.
The earliest I could think of was in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), but there must be earlier. I can see their usefulness in introducing characters, plot back grounding, setting tempo and so on. Pretty much mandatory now in all actioners, to the point of using up the best stunts and making the main feature dull. Perhaps early Bonds, which I don’t know at all, used the device?
Movie titling is cyclical. For every era where huge, splashy James-Bond type title sequences are fashionable, there’s another where barely noticeable titling over the opening scenes is in favor. (To the point where not a few movies pay all the fines and fees and completely omit opening credits.) Then it swings back to splashy art titles for a while.
The Marvel films seem to do both - omit or minimize front titles, then pack in dazzling art titles at the end.
Whether or not a film has a teaser ahead of the opening credits is another facet of the same fad, although I’d say it’s become more common to push the titles back at least a half minute to more. Having a film open with even title/star credits is a little unusual these days… but wait til next season.
It looks like there are some examples from the 1930s, and it certainly took off in the 60s. The James Bond series always had a pre-title sequence.
A big change today is that there are no opening credits other than the title in many movies. Pre-title or not, movies always had a listing of the actors and crew at the start; in the early days, the end credits could be no more than a listing of the cast, and was sometimes omitted. Now the end credits go on forever.
Easy Rider (1969) had a prominent pre-credits scene: Wyatt and Billy concluded their drug deal and stashed their money before setting off on their journey.
Any discussion of pre-title sequences would be incomplete without a mention of Raising Arizona (1987) and its amazing 11 minute pre-title prologue. That movie made me acutely aware of title placement.