To preserve the dramatic opening sequences of his films, Lucas wanted the screen credits to come only at the end. While this practice has become more common over the years, this was relatively unusual at the time. The Writers and Directors Guilds of America had no problem allowing it on "Star Wars", back in 1977, because the writer-director credit (George Lucas) matched the company name. However, when Lucas did the same thing for the sequel, it became an issue because they viewed the company credit (Lucasfilm) as displaying Lucas' name at the start of the film, while the director and writers had theirs on the end. The guilds fined him over $250,000 and attempted to pull "Empire" out of theatres. The DGA also attacked Kershner and fined him $25,000; to protect his director, Lucas paid all the fines to the guilds. Due to the controversy, he left the Directors and Writers guilds, and the Motion Picture Association.