In film openings, how much revealed can vary. The director/writer may want to give a lot away so you instantly connect with characters then causing you to engage much more in the film wanting to find out what happens to the character. However, they might also want to not give so much away just to make you morre curious as to what the true side to the character really is, or where the plotline is actually going to go.
In Romantic films, you're more likely to find out a lot about the main character and their background because the director wants to establish an instant connection, almost a relationship, between the audience and the character that the film will be focussed on. In the opening of a Romantic film, we also generally meet the character's future partner or somebody that is going to have a major influence on his/her's life, but it's not made incredibly obvious to us, because it is then created as a surprise later in the film, even though most of the audience feel like they can work it out now due to the vast number of films that have done this.
This is supported in the film, "The Perks Of Being A WallFlower" when we meet Charlie in the very first few seconds. Then, a few minutes after we have had Charlie "writing a letter", which is the directors way of giving us an insight into what Logan Lerman's character is like, we meet a significant member of Charlie's life - Patrick. He's introduced in a quite goofy way, someone that you wouldnt expect Logan's character to be friends with, thats what we have the element of surprise when they meet and instantly hit it off. By doing this, the director has made us rule out the fact that Patrick is a possible friend for Charlie. Yet for the people that look past the personalities and action of people, it gives them the chance to pick up on the fact that he must be an important character to Charlie as he gets a long scene all dedicated to him.
This idea is also supported in "(500) Days Of Summer". Another film of the Romantic genre, displaying the idea of meeting the main character and someone that is going to have a large impact on the characters life throughout the film. This film begins with an engaged couple sitting on a bench with some narration which explains that, "This is a story, of boy meets girls". This immediately informs the audience that these characters are going to be the main focus of the film and that these opening few seconds are set in the future. Then as the opening progresses we find that the actual main character is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character of Tom. This then instantly tells us that Zooey Deschanel's character of Summer is going to be the person that has a mjor impact on Tom's life. The narration gives us the complete background of both characters, and that Tom knows that Summer is the love of his life from the very first moment he meets her, "He knows immediately, she's who he's being searching for". This gives us all the information we need to know that it is going to be a story of a boy chasing after and girl and wanting her attention. The story is completely set out for us. We know the characters, the plot line of them falling in love... That is until the narration goes on to say, "This is not a love story", this completely throws a spanner in the works and makes us completely unsure of how this story is going to pan out. This is effectively done because the writer knows that the audience are then going to be gripped to their screens to see WHY its not a love story.
Obviously in other film genres the directors choose to open their film in different ways, like in Horror, the director may chose have have it as a quite dark, mystical, and curious opening, where as an Action film may be very upbeat and chasey.
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