Is there not some way to turn it off? Jesus Christ.

Yeah I noticed this too. You have to hold down the escape key too for a few seconds you used to be able to just click it once. Seems like a bug.

There is a way to avoid it just add  -nomovies   at the launch options from the properties of the game through steam.

There's an issue where the opening is treated as a "cutscene" and not a start-up video. So it gets the same 'hold-to-skip' as any other cutscene. I've asked for this to be changed.