I believe it's because a lot of television series have the main cast listed in the opening credits and the guest cast listed in the closing credits.

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I have very few DVDs of television shows and movies in my collection.  Certainly it's awkward for theatrical films.  It's a shame that there has to be a specific "rule" for this.  One would hope that simple common sense would prevail - but maybe that's too much to ask!

Quoting AiAustria:

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Can you give an example?

'True Lies', for instance. The cast list in the end credits starts with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold, but fails to include the cameo by Charlton Heston, who's only listed in the opening credits. Per this particular rule, his credit has to be listed first, above the film's main cast.

Quoting scooterberwyn:

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It's not right.

Why?  For many, many films, the end credits are NOT in 'star' order.  Some have cast "In Order of Appearance" while others have "Cast in Alphabetical Order".  A standard had to be set because your common sense, when contributing, may not be the same as somebody else's common sense when contributing.  Personally, I don't like it, so I don't do it.

When I audit a title, if the end credits are not to my liking, I list the cast in opening credit order...because that is usually set up with the 'stars' first...add a divider, then enter the cast in end credit order.

This, unfortunately, means I don't contribute those titles.  I used to, but I no longer have the time to audit a title twice just so I can contribute.

Quoting scooterberwyn:

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And it means that a valuable resource - you - is being discouraged from inputting profile information.

That's sad.

Yeah but without a rule that sets a standard I could come along and declare that Sean Connery simply does not belong this far up in the credits of Robin Hood because he appeared only in a cameo function at the end of the movie. And yet he has top billing.

So I'd move his ass were it belongs in my point of view. And then then Martian comes along again and says "but he's right there in the opening credits!".

There will always be disagreement on what constitutes common sense, because it simply is never that common.

We are the guys who decide that FRANCOIS has to be spelled as Farncois in standard cases as our favourite frenchman would point out.

We're not bound to what Hollywood decided up to more than a hundred years ago. And neither does IMDb and whatever you think of them, they are a magnitude larger an operation than DVDP.

The Francois example is exactly the point. In every other decision we are kind of enslaved to the will of the studios. We copy each and every typo, we use their credits as reference how to write an actor's name...

But we ignore the opening titles. That's odd.

OK we can find at least two other topics, where we ignore the studios: We don't credit the casting crew and we don't credit the Unit Production Managers and Assistant Directors, which are alway credited immediatly in before or after the cast.

Quoting AiAustria:

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In every other decision we are kind of enslaved to the will of the studios. We copy each and every typo, we use their credits as reference how to write an actor's name...

Who is "we"?
Some users have decided to use incorrect data and destroy all the functions of their database (linking, sorting, filtering...).
But others have not and just try to have a working personal database...

"We" should be used only when "we" have a consensus... and "we" have to be patient waiting for this...