No we didn’t put Star Wars on this that’s too easy c’mon
Looking back on the biggest, most successful, most iconic genre franchises of the last 75 years or so, it’s notable how few of them have memorable or iconic opening shots. For every “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” there are dozens of franchises that start with surprisingly generic images before going to dramatic places. How many of these opening images from franchise-launching science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies can you identify?
A note on image selection: Wherever possible, the images below depict the first thing you see after a given movie’s opening credits. But quite a few of the most famous franchise-launchers in history start with a black screen or a dim, generic shot of a starry sky. So in those cases, we went with the first image where you can actually see an object, something to differentiate one movie from another.
