History Main / BillingDisplacement

* The direct-to-video movie ''The Kiss'' bills Terrence Stamp, Billy Zane, and Eliza Dushku before the main character, played by Francoise Surel.

** Also, the adult actors seem to be credited in alphabetical order by last name. As such, the ending credits of ''PrisonerOfAzkaban'' bill Julie Christie, who has one scene, above all the rest of the cast except for the trio while David Thewlis, who probably has the most screen time of the adult cast, gets billed towards the end.

** Also, the adult actors seem to be credited in alphabetical order by last name. As such, the ending credits of ''PrisonerOfAzkaban'' bill Julie Christie, who has one scene, above all the rest of the cast except for the trio.

* The main trio in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' movies always gets the proper billing. However, most of the adult actors are billed before the other students, even when those actors are only on screen for a minute and a half, if that. For example: on the back of the DVD case for ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', David Thewlis is billed despite only being in one scene, Timothy Spall is billed despite only being on screen for five seconds ''without any dialogue'', and Warwick Davis is billed despite not really doing much of anything, while Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis, and Bonnie Wright, all of whom frequent the screen, aren't even mentioned. (The most egregious here is Tom Felton, who was a major part of the movie and who probably gave the most lauded performance.)

* The main trio in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' movies always gets the proper billing. However, most of the adult actors are billed before the other students, even when those actors are only on screen for a minute and a half, if that. For example: on the back of the DVD case for ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', David Thewlis is billed despite only being in one scene, Timothy Spall is billed despite only being on screen for five seconds, and Warwick Davis is billed despite not really doing much of anything, while Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis, and Bonnie Wright, all of whom frequent the screen, aren't even mentioned. (The most egregious here is Tom Felton, who was a major part of the movie and who probably gave the most lauded performance.)

** Even worse is an Orson Welles DVD set, in which 1 of the 4 films is ''AManForAllSeasons'' -- still a great movie, but Welles only has a cameo as the dying CardinalWolsey.

** That's because those two actors were not known at all in the United States ''and'' speak almost entirely in subtitles, while Brad Pitt was the biggest name (American) star in the film.

* ''InglouriousBasterds'' is an ensemble piece, but if any of the cast could claim to be the most important character it would be either MelanieLaurent's Shosanna and/or Christoph Waltz's Colonel Landa. Naturally, BradPitt is billed first and is the star of the trailers.

* ''Every'' ad for TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland'' on the Internet proclaims that the film stars JohnnyDepp. Well, the movie is not called ''The Mad Hatter'', so even though he gets a fair amount of time, the protagonist is Mia Wasikowska [[CaptainObvious as Alice]]. (she gets an AndStarring credit, and is the second name in the credits, behind Depp)

* The original ''Film;{{Alien}}'' movie has SigourneyWeaver at second billing, after TomSkerritt, [[spoiler: whose character dies two-thirds of the way through the movie]]. As with the ''EvilDead'' reference above, this did have the advantage of disguising the fact that Weaver's character ends up as the FinalGirl.

* The film ''TheMighty'' was heavily advertised using SharonStone and GillianAnderson in the trailers, despite them having relatively minor supporting roles in the film. The DVD cover features photos of them, along with GenaRowland and HarryDeanStanton, who were also minor. Elden Henson, whose character NARRATES the film and is obviously the main focus, is billed 7th in the opening credits.

* The theatrical run for No Retreat, No Surrender gave top billing to a pair of budding martial arts phenoms, Kurt McKinney and Jean Claude Van Damme. McKinney's character is the focus of the entire movie and is onscreen all throughout. Van Damme's character appears twice, a ''very'' quick action sequence at the beginning and the big fight at the end (about 15 minutes), and he has something like 3 lines. Even better, the current video release has Van Damme ''alone'' on the cover.

* ''The Queen'', a 2009 series of British docudramas detailing pivotal events from the life of [[TheHouseOfWindsor Queen Elizabeth II]] prominently featured the "five leading British actresses" playing the monarch, to the point that no other cast members were even mentioned on the website. It was strange then that Emila Fox, the actress playing the queen in the first episode, actually appeared ''less'' than the second billed (in the credits)/mostly ignored (in the promotional material) Katie [=McGrath=], who played Princess Margaret.

* The ''{{Hairspray}}'' movie counts, as it was advertised starring JohnTravolta (in drag!). Nikkie Blonsky gets an "[[AndStarring And Introducing]]" after the long list of all the other celebrities "starring" in the movie.

* Farrah Fawcett got ''top billing'' in ads when ''LogansRun'' hit television, even though she had a small bit part as an [[BrainlessBeauty airheaded]] nurse.

* AntonioBanderas and Carla Gugino in ''SpyKids 3''. It can be argued that this was the case in the first two as well since the children were the main characters, but, of course, no marketing department on Earth would throw away having two movie stars on-screen for most of the movie. However, in the third one Banderas and Gugino were only given cameos at the end and were ''still'' top-billed.

* Intentionally employed by AlfredHitchcock in ''{{Psycho}}''. Janet Leigh was billed as the star of the film, and is the de-facto protagonist of the film until [[spoiler: she's killed off fairly early on, thus shocking the audience by not just taking their protagonist away, but the most recognizable face in the movie.]] Arguably Hitchcock's CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* ''The Queen'', a 2009 series of British docudramas detailing pivotal events from the life of [[TheHouseOfWindsor Queen Elizabeth II]] prominently featured the "five leading British actresss" playing the monarch, to the point that no other cast members were even mentioned on the website. It was strange then that Emila Fox, the actress playing the queen in the first episode, actually appeared ''less'' than the second billed (in the credits)/mostly ignored (in the promotional material) Katie [=McGrath=], who played Princess Margaret.

** The visual extension of this trope is on the soundtrack cover, which uses pictures of the characters. An odd side effect of this is that the only teenage character above the title is Amanda Bynes, with Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelly, Zac Efron, and Nikki Blonksy underneath it.

* ''The Princess Bride'' gave BillyCrystal top billing, despite the fact that CaryElwes, RobinWright, and even AndreTheGiant all had much more significant roles.

* One of the most striking examples: the actual main character in ''Training Day'' is Ethan Hawke's rookie rather than DenzelWashington's crooked cop, but Hawke is hardly remembered while Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Despite playing the main character, Hawke was nominated for a Supporting Role.

* The ''Hairspray'' movie counts, as it was advertised starring JohnTravolta (in drag!). Nikkie Blonsky gets an "[[AndStarring And Introducing]]" after the long list of all the other celebrities "starring" in the movie.

** ''PlanetTerror'' has a small appearance by Bruce "Osama slayer" Willis. The plan was to make it one of those "[[{{HeyItsThatGuy}} Wait, Bruce Willis is in this movie?]]" moments, but it was kinda ruined when he got billed in the poster.

* The old video cover for ''{{The Little Shop of Horrors}}'' had Jack Nicholson on the back, even though he was little more than a cameo. To make matters worse, the picture used was from ''TheShining''. (You know which one I mean.)

* Robin Williams used [[StageNames pseudonyms]] for his appearances in ''The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen'', ''Shakes The Clown'', and ''The Secret Agent'' to avoid this trope.

* There was a lot of hype about DrewBarrymore starring in ''{{Scream}}'', with equal billing to NeveCampbell. Barrymore [[{{YouShouldKnowThisAlready}} dies in the first 10 minutes.]]

* ''Every'' ad for TimBurton's Film/AliceInWonderland on the Internet proclaims that the film stars JohnnyDepp. Well, the movie is not called ''The Mad Hatter'', so even though he gets a fair amount of time, the protagonist is Mia Wasikowska [[CaptainObvious as Alice]].
* The JamesBond spoof ''[[SoBadItsHorrible Casino Royale]]'' (based on [[CasinoRoyale a novel]] which was later adapted for the ''real'' Bond films) features as an added extra that a rather large number of characters are all renamed "James Bond". Everyone remembers WoodyAllen and PeterSellers between them stealing the show. Top billing on-screen goes to [[spoiler:David Niven]]. So memorable was his performance, that most people's reaction to hearing this is "Was he even in it?"

* The original ''{{Alien}}'' movie has SigourneyWeaver at second billing, after TomSkerritt, [[spoiler: whose character dies two-thirds of the way through the movie]]. As with the ''EvilDead'' reference above, this did have the advantage of disguising the fact that Weaver's character ends up as the FinalGirl.

* Ads for the film ''[[DespicableMe Despicable Me]]'' give MirandaCosgrove second billing (possibly to appeal to the film's target audience). In the actual film, she is billed fifth (behind SteveCarell, JasonSegel, RussellBrand and KristenWiig) despite being an important character.

* While not as blatant or outrageous, viewers were led to believe that Lil Kim and Usher would have bigger parts in {{Shes All That}} but the pair probably take up five minutes of screen time between the two of them. It was for the the best.
* The main trio in the ''HarryPotter'' movies always gets the proper billing. However, most of the adult actors are billed before the other students, even when those actors are only on screen for a minute and a half, if that. For example: on the back of the DVD case for ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'', David Thewlis is billed despite only being in one scene, Timothy Spall is billed despite only being on screen for five seconds, and Warwick Davis is billed despite not really doing much of anything, while Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis, and Bonnie Wright, all of whom frequent the screen, aren't even mentioned. (The most egregious here is Tom Felton, who was a major part of the movie and who probably gave the most lauded performance.)

* ''The Princess Bride'' gave BillyCrystal top billing, despite the fact that CareyElwes, RobinWright, and even AndreTheGiant all had much more significant roles.

* The 1965 movie ''Operation: Crossbow'' features George Peppard as an American engineer who assumes the identity of a German engineer in order to infiltrate the Nazi V2 rocket base at Peenemunde. In one short scene, the German engineer's wife, played by Sophia Loren, tracks her 'husband' down and is later killed to prevent her from alerting the Gestapo to the identity theft. Loren's scene is no more than five minutes long, yet she received top billing in the American release. (The movie was produced by her husband, Carlo Ponti.)
* The ''Hairspray'' movie counts, as it was advertised starring John Travolta (in drag!). Nikkie Blonsky gets an "And introducing" after the long list of all the other celebrities "starring" in the movie.

* ''Once Upon a Time In Mexico'' is {{egregious}} with the pushing of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek as the "leads." Banderas only has a few (if awesome) scenes and Hayek [[spoiler: only [[DisposableWoman appears alive]] in a flashback]].
** Antonio Banderas plays the sorta main character, El Mariachi, who at least in the previous two movies was the clear lead. In ''Mexico'' Johnny Depp has far more screen-time, and is more essential to the plot.
* This happens to Bruce Willis a lot:

** In Four Rooms: Willis wasn't even billed. Although this is because he worked for free and SAG threatened to sue him if he received a credit.
* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' had Christopher Reeve billed below the title, and Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman above.
** An even more egregious example comes in the opening credits for ''Superman II'': Ned Beatty was given higher billing than Margot Kidder and Terence Stamp, despite having ''way'' less screentime.
* ''Satanic'' gives both JeffreyCombs and Angus Scrimm prominent billing. Their combined screentime comes to less than eight minutes.

* ''The Rocker'' is a fairly mild case; while the trailer does show that Rainn Wilson plays the main character, it [[TrailersAlwaysLie implies that Josh Gad's part is the most important of the younger band members, and that he is after Emma Stone's character.]] Actually Teddy Geiger has the larger, more dramatic role and it is he who ends up with Stone.

* ''TheFastAndTheFurious'' is mainly remembered as a Vin Diesel flick, although the main character was actually the role played by Paul Walker. In the most recent installment, Michelle Rodriguez gets top billing with Jordana Brewster, VinDiesel, and Paul Walker, [[spoiler: but Rodriguez gets about five minutes of screentime before [[DroppedABridgeOnHim getting the bridge dropped on her.]]]]

* ''TheForbiddenKingdom'' was advertised as starring JackieChan and Jet Li (who both play supporting characters), not even mentioning Michael Angarano, who played the main protagonist.

* In the poster for ''Vicky Cristina Barcelona'' Penelope Cruz gets joint top billing with Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson above a photograph of the three of them. Her character ''is'' important and the performance won an Oscar, but Cruz herself actually only appears in less than a third of the film. Rebecca Hall, who played the far more prominent character of Vicky, does not appear on the poster at all and her name is billed with the minor supporting roles.

* There was a lot of hype about Drew Barrymore starring in ''{{Scream}}'', with equal billing to Neve Campbell. Barrymore [[{{YouShouldKnowThisAlready}} dies in the first 10 minutes.]]

* At the beginning of TheTenthKingdom, Ann Margaret is listed among actors who appear throughout the entire miniseries, yet she doesn't actually appear until the very end.
* In EarthSea, Amanda Tapping is credited among the other major actors, but her actual screentime is literally under ten seconds.

* One of the big reasons the 1984 film ''D.C. Cab'' bombed was that it was marketed as a Mr. T vehicle, despite the fact that Mr. T's character was peripheral at best. It got so bad that in some other countries, it was called "Mr. T and Company".

* Before ''{{Rocky}}'', Sylvester Stallone participated in a mediocre porno called ''Party at Kitty and Stud's''. (He was Stud.) After ''Rocky'', the producers changed its name to ''The Italian Stallion'' to capitalize on Stallone's success.
** ''Death Race 2000'' featured David Carradine in his first post-''KungFu'' role, naturally giving him top-billing, and appearing on the poster. A young Stallone appears in a strong-supporting role as the antagonist "Machine-Gun Joe" Viterbo (which doesn't even crack the Top 10 of stupidest names for a Stallone character). His only other major film to date had been ''Lords of Flatbush''. When the movie was re-released for DVD, Stallone was added to the cover, sharing the top-billing with Carradine.

* ''InglouriousBasterds'' is an ensemble piece, but if any of the cast could claim to be the most important character it would be either Melanie Laurent's Shosanna and/or Christoph Waltz's Colonel Landa. Naturally, Brad Pitt is billed first and is the star of the trailers.

* The film ''The Mighty'' was heavily advertised using Sharon Stone and Gillian Anderson in the trailers, despite them having relatively minor supporting roles in the film. The DVD cover features photos of them, along with Gena Rowland and Harry Dean Stanton, who were also minor. Elden Henson, whose character NARRATES the film and is obviously the main focus, is billed 7th in the opening credits.
* ''{{Silence of the Lambs}}'' is largely thought of as an Anthony Hopkins film, and he did earn an Academy Award for it despite the least amount of screen time for a Best Actor winner in Oscar history. Jodie Foster did receive top billing (and also an Oscar), but the character of Hannibal Lecter is the picture's lasting legacy.
* The Independent Film Channel advertised ''Before Night Falls'' as "starring Johnny Depp," when in fact he only appears in three scenes.

* R star Usher is featured prominently on the poster for ''TheFaculty'' despite his role being a glorified cameo.
* In the animated movie ''Heidi's Song'' Sammy Davis Jr. receives second billing even though his role is very minor only appearing as a singing rat who appears near the end.
* BallsOfFury is sometimes mistakenly quoted as "Masi Oka's movie" (as can be seen [[http://wink.com/p/Masi_Oka here]]), despite the fact that he only plays a men's room attendant.

* The JamesBond spoof ''[[SoBadItsHorrible Casino Royale]]'' (based on [[CasinoRoyale a novel]] which was later adapted for the ''real'' Bond films) features as an added extra that a rather large number of characters are all renamed "James Bond". Everyone remembers Woody Allen and Peter Sellers between them stealing the show. Top billing on-screen goes to [[spoiler:David Niven]]. So memorable was his performance, that most people's reaction to hearing this is "Was he even in it?"

** Likewise, in the "Redux" re-release, at least (didn't see any trailers for the original), Harrison Ford got top billing despite appearing only briefly, in a minor role.
* Applies to both the original and the remake of ''TheManchurianCandidate''. Janet Leigh was third-billed for the original, despite having a much smaller (and less important) role than Angela Lansbury (credited as "co-starring"); additionally, Frank Sinatra got top billing even though lesser-known Laurence Harvey played Raymond Shaw, the pivotal character. When the remake came out, once again the actor playing Raymond Shaw, Liev Schreiber, was more talented than well-known, and got third-billing after Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, and the advertisement for the film made much of Jon Voight's rather small role.
* Surprisingly averted or even subverted in Jason Bateman flick ''Extract''. Ben Affleck has a reasonably big role and is probably the most famous actor in the film but does not appear on the theatrical posters while less famous actors J.K. Simmons and David Koechner do despite playing characters with less screentime.
* While ''{{Stardust}}'' does seem to give top billing to Claire Danes (who played one of the main characters), Michelle Pfeiffer (as the villain) and Robert De Niro (as a fairly minor character) come before Charlie Cox. The ''hero''. The DVD cover also takes pains to point out that it features Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, and Peter O'Toole, all of which have three scenes at the very most.

* The original ''{{Alien}}'' movie has Sigourney Weaver at second billing, after Tom Skerritt, [[spoiler: whose character dies two-thirds of the way through the movie]]. As with the ''EvilDead'' reference above, this did have the advantage of disguising the fact that Weaver's character ends up as the FinalGirl.

* For the DVD release of ''Follow That Bird'' Elmo is featured on the cover suggesting he is an important character, however Elmo's role is very minor he only shows up in two scenes near the beginning he is seen dancing down the street in the opening song and at the end of the movie he opens a window to a building and sings a verse of the song.

* The movie Primary Colors: actor Adrian Lester (TV's Hustle) is listed FIFTH in nearly all material for the film, despite obviously being the lead character. John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Kathy Bates are all listed above him. Even though Thorton and Bates play much smaller characters, and even Travolta and Thompson (as a fictional Bill & Hillary Clinton) are back-ups to Lester's Henry Burton.

* Although he's not really billed, [[AmbiguousGender Brian Molko's]] face shows up prominently on the DVD cover of Todd Haynes glam rock flick [[VelvetGoldmine Velvet Goldmine]]. The members of Placebo only have a small cameo and a few lines, but it seems like the DVD distributors knew their audience.
* Ads for the film ''[[DespicableMe Despicable Me]]'' give Miranda Cosgrove second billing (possibly to appeal to the film's target audience). In the actual film, she is billed fifth (behind SteveCarell, Jason Segel, RussellBrand and Kristen Wiig) despite being an important character.
* The big-screen version of ''TheFugitive'' was originally supposed to feature Julianne Moore as Harrison Ford's love interest. It was eventually decided to reduce her role to a bit part, but Moore still got fourth billing despite only having a couple minutes of screen time.
* "Playing For Keeps" DVD release had 'starring Marisa Tomei' with a large portrait of her on the left and a cast photo (including her) on the right.Granted the original promotional material featured her as token female among the New York friends.
* Arnold Schwartzenegger is confirmed to only have one scene in TheExpendables yet he's featured in the trailers as if he's a leading man.

* ''{{Wings}}'' is increasingly being thought of as the show Tony Shalhoub was in before ''{{Monk}}''. Shalhoub is prominently featured on the cover art for all ''Wings'' DVD releases despite the fact that his role was relatively minor, and in the case of the Seasons 1 & 2 set, that he was only in a single episode on the set.

&BThe tendency of a film to be retroactively linked in the public mind with the biggest name in the film or be marketed as "starring" the biggest name, even if that actor is not the main character (at least from the filmmakers' point of view), and occasionally even if his or her character is very minor indeed.

The tendency of a film to be retroactively linked in the public mind with the biggest name in the film or be marketed as "starring" the biggest name, even if that actor is not the main character (at least from the filmmakers' point of view), and occasionally even if his or her character is very minor indeed.

* R&B star Usher is featured prominently on the poster for ''TheFaculty'' despite his role being a glorified cameo.

* Ads for the film ''[[DespicableMe Despicable Me]]'' give Miranda Cosgrove second billing (possibly to appeal to the film's target audience). In the actual film, she is billed fifth (behind Steve Carell, Jason Segel, RussellBrand and Kristen Wiig) despite being an important character.

* Ads for the film ''[[DespicableMe Despicable Me]]'' give Miranda Cosgrove second billing (possibly to appeal to the film's target audience). In the actual film, she is billed fifth (behind Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig) despite being an important character.

** Antonio Banderas plays the main character, El Mariachi.

* Arnold Schwartzenegger is confirmed to only have one scene in TheExpensables yet he's featured in the trailers as if he's a leading man.