Why is the date on a movie credit always in roman numerals?

Why is the date on a movie credit always in roman numerals? Who started this and why does it continue?

Since Y2K, I see lots of movies (and TV shows) now just using arabic numerals.

I think the original intent was to cloud the date of birth so people (other than ancient Romans) wouldn’t know how old it was.

I had heard it was to lend a touch of class to the flim business, which was stages poor cousin at the time.

Probably true, but now it’s seen for what it is - flim-flam. :slight_smile: