It's not a set process with specific rules. Again, it's arbitrary and based on contract negotiations. If an actor in the main cast of of the movie/series is the main producer, they'll likely get top billing even if there are bigger actors on the cast or if they aren't the lead character.
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Plus it made more sense for how the intro flowed (which is likely why he got listed after the girlfriend character). For example, on Burn Notice, Bruce Campbell is pretty easily the biggest name but he got third billing while Sharon Gless got last billing.
If not based on name then it's based on seniority. Last billing is generally the second biggest name actor regardless of if it's "and" or "with". Leads generally get top billing but bigger names sometimes trump that if the lead is a no name. Bigger actors often get top billing over leads. Top billing isn't always the lead of the film either. Terrence Howard got paid more than RDJ in Iron Man.
Despite that, Daniels is billed higher than Mayhew and the guy that replaced Mayhew didn't even make the cut. Daniels is barely in the new sequels while Chewbacca is much more prominent in both. That tells me that they prioritize putting legacy actors in the billing even though they play super minor roles. The new actor for Chewbacca isn't even though Mayhew was always on the billing in the movies he was in. Hell, I'd say she had a bigger role in TFA than she did in TLJ. One interesting thing is Gwendoline Christie got billing in TLJ when she didn't in TFA (she's just under Daniels and above Tran). Benicio del Toro got last billing in this case for pretty obvious reasons. In The Last Jedi, the order was similar except Hamill is top because Ford is gone. Ford got the top because he's the biggest out of all of them (which trumped the original order of the first three movies).
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Ridley is the main character but is after Driver who is a bigger actor. Sydow had a super tiny role at the beginning of the movie (though he did get the first line). Here's another interesting example: In The Force Awakens the billing order went Ford, Hamill, Fisher, Driver, Ridley, Boyega, Isaac, Nyong'o, Serkis, Gleeson, Daniels, Mayhew, and Sydow. This is likely the case because like I said, the order generally holds between sequels. In the first three movies Hamill got top billing even though Ford was a bigger actor by the time RotJ came out. In all three prequels Frank Oz got last billing (as he did in ESB and RotJ). In Phantom Menace she got third billing and McGregor got second after Neeson. You'd think Hayden would be second but Natalie Portman is a bigger name and she was in all three of the prequels whereas Hayden was only introduced in the second one. Here are some more interesting examples: Revenge of the Sith has Ewan McGregor at the top then Natalie Portman and then Hayden Christensen. If it's a sequel the politics of holdovers likely play into it as well. Generally it's basically order of importance to plot is the starting order then it gets altered based on contract negotiations. Sometimes, if there are fresh/new actors in the show or movie, they'll put "featuring" which I think comes after the normal last billing of the main cast. Often for last billings they'll put "as" with the character name after the actor's name. In these cases, the last one is still the better slot. But if there are more than one famous actor in small roles they'll put "with" first and then "and". "and" is the most commonly used for last billing. Last billing is reserved for big name actors in a smaller role. Examples: A Wrinkle in Time, Queen of Katwe.Īfter that, it's pretty much in order of importance to the plot or order of fame except for "last billing". Sometimes if the main character is a no name and there are big actors in supporting roles they'll get top billing. Generally assuming billing isn't alphabetical, top billing goes to the protagonist but that's not always the case. Bigger name actors have more clout so they can push for better billion positions in their contracts.