opening credits

  or title (sequence)

  the presentation of the 'opening credits' (as an introduction to the audience about the film and including selected important members of the production) is known as the opening credits sequence; sometimes it is superimposed on the action, but often exists as static letters on a solid background; since the closing or end credits usually list the entire cast and production crew, the opening credits sequence is usually positioned to set the mood of the film, and sometimes even lacks any credits except the film's title

  Examples: Saul Bass was famous for his opening credits sequences, such as his work on Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959) with crisscrossing lines that turned into the side of a building; the opening of Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979) was credit-less save for a flashing "Manhattan" sign on a building; and James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) featured the title emerging from blackness and traveling down the "Y" into the ocean Robocop 2 (1990) and Vanilla Sky (2001) were unusual in that there were no opening credits of any sort, not even the title of the film - an increasing trend!