Are post-credit scenes after a movie the new "hidden track" after a music album?

[DetlefK]

Back when music was recorded on vinyl, you knew that the album was over when the music ended. Then some artists coined the trick to add another track after 10 or so minutes of silence. Thus, the "hidden track" was born.

It became something normal to add a hidden track and the tradition stayed alive well into the era of music-CDs. Now the audio-file of the last song contained two songs, with about 5-10 minutes of silence inbetween.

This worked with CD-players, but as we started using PCs for playing music, that surprise got spoiled all the time.
"Oh! The last audiofile is 15 minutes long? That must be the hidden track!"



Now we have something similar with movies. Post-credit-scenes used to be something rare and special. Now every movie has them.

The ultra-super-special mega-secret scenes have become so normal that it's now noteworthy when a movie DOESN'T have a post-credits scene.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/logan-director-explains-lack-of-post-credits-scene-tho-1792989704

[skippercollector]

1. are they for tv airings?

I've wondered if all those photos and scenes during the closing credits are a way to make sure that the credits are actually shown when the movie aired on TV. Now you just see the text zip by at an unreadably fast speed at the bottom of the screen, as another commercial or the opening scene of the next program is aired.

[DetlefK]

2. No, I mean the ones in cinema.

First they were an artistic touch. A "Thank You" for the hardcore fans who stayed through the credits when a movie ran in cinema.

But with the transformation of the moviemaking-landscape towards franchises, they have deteriorated to teaser-trailers for the NEXT installment in the series. They have become the new normal. And now it's noteworthy when a certain kind of movie doesn't have a post-credits scene.

[Thor_MN]

3. That is because they are required to show the credits, but

the language that required it didn't specify that it had to be full screen or normal speed. So they shrink to an inset and speed it up, while showing ads, or the start of the next movie.

[swimboy]

4. I think the earliest one I remember

was at the end of 'Being There'

[Stinkfoot007]

5. Closing credits from Ferris Buehler's Day Off were hilarious

Classic