In Film Posters, another result of a billing conflict could be a Misplaced-Names Poster. If it happens when their roles aren't equally important, it could be a case of Billing Displacement.
Diagonal billing became popular when it was used in The Towering Inferno, with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. They also received the same salary and the same number of lines (at McQueen's insistence). The idea was originally proposed when it was thought that Newman and McQueen would star in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but dropped when Robert Redford was cast instead of McQueen.
A variation of staggered billing can be seen on some TV series. Instead of two leads sharing the same title card, they alternate who is billed first from episode to episode.
Examples:
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Film
- As detailed above, The Towering Inferno, starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, is the Trope Maker in film. McQueen's role as the fire chief was expanded from a smaller role at his insistence so as to equal Newman's character.
- This trope dates at least as far back as 1941, providing a set of Ur-Examples:
- In Love Crazy, William Powell and Myrna Loy, who were starring in their tenth film together (eventually they made 14), were billed this way.
- That same year, co-stars Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland were billed this way in Hold Back the Dawn.
- Also that same year, Hedy Lamarr and James Stewart were billed this way in Come Live with Me.
- Jaws has a three-man variant of this, with Roy Scheider at lower left, Robert Shaw at center top, both receiving top billing. Richard Dreyfuss's name is then featured at lower right.
- The China Syndrome also has a three-person variant, with Jack Lemmon at lower left, Jane Fonda at center top, and Michael Douglas at lower right.
- The poster for Inside Man manages to do something similar with three actors: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. Washington's picture is furthest to the left while Owen's is nearest the top, while their names are angled in such a way that Foster's name is furthest to the left and Washington's is nearest the top.
- James Caan and Alan Arkin in Freebie and the Bean (1974).
- Robert Shaw and Sarah Miles in The Hireling (1973).
- Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Righteous Kill.
- In the 2002 film of Chicago, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
- In Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow get diagonal billing, while Angelina Jolie gets the honored And Starring position on the same card. See it here at 00:18.
- Yul Brynner and Richard Benjamin in Westworld (1973).
- Boeing Boeing (1965) had the names of Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis criss-crossed.
- Lillian Gish and Bette Davis, who combined for 131 years in the movie business when they co-starred together in The Whales of August (1987), get diagonal billing in the opening credits. Davis is billed first in the closing credits.
- Mad Max: Fury Road doesn't feature this on the poster (where Supporting Protagonist Tom Hardy is billed before Charlize Theron), but does in the actual opening credits. Nicholas Hoult and Hugh Keays-Byrne are listed this way during the end credits, as are Zoë Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
- Hiroshima Mon Amour does this in the opening titles for leads Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada, who together have approximately 99% of the spoken dialogue in the movie. (Posters invariably give Riva either top billing or sole billing.)
- Outrageous Fortune had an unusual variation to ensure equal billing for its stars: Shelley Long got top billing west of the Mississippi, and Bette Midler got it on the east side.
- Ralph Richardson and John Mills in The Wrong Box.
- While Donald Pleasence was the undisputed biggest name and top billed in Halloween (1978), by the time of Halloween II (1981) three years later, Jamie Lee Curtis had started to make a name for herself in horror movies, and they split the credits this way.
- The Fast and the Furious (2001) end credits for Paul Walker and Vin Diesel (here◊).
- The opening credits for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days put Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey on the same card with Hudson in the upper right corner while McConaughey gets the lower left.
- The opening credits of Don't Look Up have Leonardo DiCaprio in the lower left and Jennifer Lawrence in the upper right. The closing cast list gives Lawrence the top billing.
- Thanks to this trope, the Misplaced-Names Poster for Nothing to Lose identifies Tim Robbins as Martin Lawrence and vice versa.
- John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Frank Thornton, and Trevor Bannister are billed this way in the opening credits of Are You Being Served?. When Inman and Sugden are billed, Inman's face is in the top left corner of the screen with his name in the bottom left corner, while Sugden's name and face are on the top right and bottom left corners respectively. Then when Thornton and Bannister are billed, Thornton's face is in the bottom left, his name is on the top left, Bannister's name is in the top right, and his name is in the bottom left.
Live Action TV
- Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in the opening credits of The Morning Show.
- Adam Scott and Ken Marino in the closing credits of Party Down.
- Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams in the Laverne & Shirley opening title sequence.
- Ted Danson and Shelley Long in Cheers, as seen above. When Long left after season 5 and Kirstie Alley replaced her, Danson was given his own title card ahead of hers (and thus top billing).
- The Sprouse Brothers on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
- In a related way, the Vanity Plate for Mike and Bill Productions (as on Grounded for Life) alternated whose name was in huge letters on its own line: "mike and BILL" or "MIKE and bill".
- Bella Thorne and Zendaya in Shake it Up and the Disney Channel Original Movie Frenemies.
- Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher in Two and a Half Men.
- On What Not to Wear, Stacy and Clinton have diagonal billing first as host and then as stylist on the first and second frames of the closing credits.
- Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy in Hannibal, their names also switch sides each episode.
- Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz on Bones.
- Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson on True Detective.
- Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi on dads.
- Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on Sherlock.
- Diane Kruger and Demián Bichir as detective partners on The Bridge; the names also alternate positions on the diagonal each episode. Especially appropriate for a series with a strong duality motif (crime on the two sides of the US/Mexico border).
- Christian Slater and Steve Zahn as brothers and business partners in Mind Games.
- Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust on Love.
- Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis on Billions.
- Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as husband and wife in Santa Clarita Diet.
- Aaron Paul and Michelle Monaghan in The Path.
- Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph on Cloak & Dagger (2018).
- The credits for the first season of Good Omens (2019) use a variant in order to give Michael Sheen and David Tennant equal billing: Sheen's name fades in first, followed by "& David Tennant." Their names appear together for a moment (at the same level), and then "Michael Sheen &" fades out leaving Tennant alone for a few seconds. The second season gives them the traditional diagonal arrangement with Michael Sheen at top right and David Tennant at bottom left.
- The short-lived Nightmare Cafe featured this—a case where the diagonally set names (Jack Coleman and Lindsay Frost) were quite not as well known as the And Starring that follows (Robert Englund) and, for that matter, the created by credit (Wes Craven).
- Scott Baio and Erin Moran got staggered billing for Joanie Loves Chachi—interesting considering how the parent show was known for the order of the credits shifting from season to season as Breakout Characters gained prominence.
- Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly in Cagney & Lacey. Each character got two photos, a square glamor shot and a landscape action shot, with the name sandwiched between vertically. Tyne was on the left with the big square pic up top, so her name was lower; Sharon was on the right, with the big square pic on the bottom, so her name was higher (seen here).
- Done with Kathy Baker and Tom Skerritt on Picket Fences.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe does this for some of its live-action series:
- In Wandavision, Elizabeth Olsen is billed first on odd-numbered episodes, while Paul Bettany is billed first on even-numbered episodes.
- In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan is billed first on odd-numbered episodes, while Anthony Mackie is billed first on even-numbered episodes.
- Drake & Josh alternated Drake Bell's and Josh Peck's billing from episode to episode.
- The short-lived 1994 series The Boys Are Back inverted this trope for some reason: Hal Linden and Suzanne Pleshette have their credits appear together and in a diagonal position.. but Linden is up and to the left, while Pleshette is down and to the right, meaning the positioning ensured she was doubly subordinated rather than equalized.
- When Redd Foxx died in mid-production on his final series, The Royal Family, the show was revamped with actress Jackée brought in alongside Foxx's co-star Della Reese. Even though Reese was the established female lead of the series, she and Jackée were given diagonal billing in the revised credits. The show did not survive the loss of Foxx and was canceled with most of the post-retool episodes unbroadcast.
- Ghosts (US): Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar share top billing, with McIver's name lower and to the left and Ambudkar's name higher and to the right.
- Scenes from a Marriage (2021) credits Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain equally and diagonally.
- Will & Grace: Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, who played the titular duo, were credited this way and their positions switched each episode.
- After an argument between Steptoe and Son stars Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett over who should receive top billing ahead of the first series, the BBC alternated which one was billed first every episode, and whichever was billed second in the opening credits would be billed first in the closing credits.
- The billing of The Likely Lads stars Rodney Bewes and James Bolam alternated every episode; the order would also be swapped between the opening and closing credits of a given episode.
- Poker Face: Episode 5 credited S. Epatha Merkerson and Judith Light like this in the opening credits, episode 6 does the same for Ellen Barkin and Tim Meadows, and episode 8 does it for Nick Nolte and Cherry Jones.
- All six rangers in the second season of Power Rangers Dino Fury. They appear two at a time - red and pink, then blue and green, and finally black and gold. In the first season their credits appeared on screen one at a time.
- The Walking Dead Television Universe:
- Chad L. Coleman and Emily Kinney in the fifth season of The Walking Dead. The final season, which adds almost a dozen of the cast to the opening credits, has the newest additions - Eleanor Matsuura (Yumiko), Lauren Ridloff (Connie), Cailey Fleming (Judith), Nadia Hilker (Magna), Cassady McClincy (Lydia), Angel Theory (Kelly), Paola Lázaro (Princess), Michael James Shaw (Mercer), Josh Hamilton (Lance), and Laila Robins (Pamela) - listed this way.
- Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on The Walking Dead: Dead City.
- Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us (2023).
- Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong in Schmigadoon!, after the second season switches from listing them on two separate slides at the beginning, to listing both of them on the same end title card.
- Television projects featuring The Muppets, starting with The Muppets (2015) and continuing in The Muppets Mayhem, started a variation of this to give all of the Muppet performers equal billing: the first episode credits them in alphabetical order, then each episode moves the one who was first-billed in the previous episode to the end of the list, so that each puppeteer gets their turn at being top-billed.
Theatre
- Posters for the 1936 Broadway musical Red, Hot and Blue! placed Ethel Merman's and Jimmy Durante's names in crisscrossing bands because of a billing dispute. (When the two starred again in the 1939 flop Stars in Your Eyes, Merman was billed first.)
- Often times, even when every other principle gets their own bow, a show's co-leads will come out and bow together. Granted, they'll also do singular bows after, which means one of them will technically get the last bow.
- The original playbill for Wicked credits Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth like this.
Western Animation
- All Grown Up!, one of the rare animated series to feature billing in its intro, had this for twins Phil and Lil DeVille.
- Filmation utilized an interesting variant from 1969 to 1982 in the opening and closing sequences of its shows: the word "Produced By" or "Executive Producers" would be shown with the names of two of its three co-founders Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott revolving around it. [1]
- Futurama, starting with its 2023 reboot, has a three-episode cycle in which Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio alternate being first billed.
