Editing London Coliseum (section)

==Use as a cinema==
Periodically, the Coliseum was used to show films and, when the "'talkies' arrived at the Coliseum in 1933, films were run at the theatre for a year. The greatest sensation at this time was the showing of ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' which ran at the Coliseum for months with 10,000 people seeing the film there every day."<ref name=AL/>

After a lacklustre period of poorly received musicals came to an end, in June 1961 the theatre was leased by [[Metro Goldwyn Mayer|MGM]] for use as a cinema during the period that the [[Empire, Leicester Square]] was closed for rebuilding. The initial presentation, from 6 June, was a revival of ''[[Gone With the Wind (film)|Gone With the Wind]]'' which ran for 3 months. On 2 November the World Premiere of ''[[Bachelor in Paradise (film)|Bachelor in Paradise]]'' took place in the presence of the film's star, Bob Hope, and following this, on 15 November, was the UK premiere of [[Samuel Bronston]]'s epic ''[[King of Kings (1961 film)|King of Kings]]''. MGM continued to use the theatre even after the new [[Empire, Leicester Square]] reopened in December 1962, but MGM's lease expired on 19 May 1963 and the theatre was then leased by the [[Cinerama]] Corporation to become the second of London's Cinerama locations (after the [[Prince Edward Theatre|Casino Cinerama]]).

Conversion to three-strip projection which used three projectors was undertaken, and an 80&nbsp;ft wide, 30&nbsp;ft tall deeply curved screen was installed. Beginning on 16 July 1963, the theatre was renamed the Coliseum Cinerama, with the UK premiere of ''[[The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm]]''. This film transferred to the third of London's Cinerama houses, the [[Peacock Theatre|Royalty Theatre]] on 27 November and the Coliseum was converted for single-projector Cinerama using 70mm film for the Gala UK Premiere of ''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World]]'' on 2 December 1963. Other 70mm films followed, ''The Magnificent Showman'' (the UK Title of ''[[Circus World (film)|Circus World]]''), ''[[The Great Race]]'' (a 35mm "blow up") and ''[[The Bible (film)|The Bible]]''. With fewer films made in the format, it later became difficult to programme the theatre. It resorted to revivals of old 70mm movies before opening ''[[The Comedians (1967 film)|The Comedians]]'' on 18 January 1968 (a 70mm Panavision blow up). This ran for nine weeks and was followed by a revival of the 1956 Todd-AO epic ''[[Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film)|Around the World in 80 Days]]'', the first time this film had been shown in 70mm in London. This ran until 22 May 1968 when Cinerama pulled out and the theatre reverted to live use.<ref name="cinematreasures"/>