Cineworld Cinema - Leicester Square

The Empire Theatre was designed and built as a music hall by architect Thomas Verity and could seat 3,000. It opened on 17th April 1884. The old Pit seating entrance can still be seen today if you go around to the left of the theatre into Leicester Street. In 1893 a new façade and foyer was built on Leicester Square, designed by Frank T. Verity. This façade and entrance is what is seen today, as on 22nd January 1927, the old Empire Theatre was closed, after it had been taken over by Loew’s Inc. in 1925. The auditorium was demolished and a new one built to the plans of Scottish born theatre architect Thomas W. Lamb (from the USA) assisted by F.W. Boettcher (from the UK) and associated architect was Frederick G.M. Chancellor of the noted UK theatre architectural firm Frank Matcham & Company.

The new Empire Theatre opened on 8th November 1928 with Norma Shearer in “Trelawney of the Wells” and for the following 33 years became the London premier home to MGM feature films. It housed 3,330 seats in its massive and decorative Adam style auditorium. There were 1,916 seats in the stalls, 180 loge seats in the front of the circle and the remainder of the circle seated 1,234. The Empire Theatre had a fully equipped stage and for a period in the late-1940’s until February 1952, it was put to full use when a stage show accompanied the main feature film. The proscenium was 54 feet wide and the stage 35 feet deep. It was equipped with a WurliTzer 4Manual/21Rank organ which was opened by organist Sandy MacPherson and he was organist for the following nine years. The Leicester Square landmark also had an opulent lobby and all the normal regalia of an American movie palace, its interior resembled the Thomas Lamb designed Capitol Theatre in Manhattan, New York, its exterior is in the Italian Renaissance style and is an almost identical copy of the façade of Thomas W. Lamb’s E.F. Albee Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio of 1927. The auditorium was in an Adam style.

Of course, as the Empire Theatre was Loew’s premier theatre in the UK, all the MGM films which opened at the Empire Theatre over the years were UK premiere presentations, as were the occasional productions from other studios, but there were also many special premieres: the first of these being a midnight charity premiere-4th September 1935 Eleanor Powell in “Broadway Melody of 1936”, gala late night premiere-31st March 1938 Robert Taylor “A Yank at Oxford”, evening premiere-concurrent with the Palace Theatre and the Ritz Cinema 18th April 1940 Vivien Leigh “Gone With the Wind” (which ran at the Empire Theatre for 12 weeks), Charity Premiere-10th August 1944 Irene Dunne “The White Cliffs of Dover”, Royal Command Performance (the first to be held)-1st November 1946 David Niven “A Matter of Life and Death”, Royal Command Performance-29th November 1948 John Mills “Scott of the Antarctic”, Royal Command Performance-30th October 1950 Irene Dunne “The Mudlark”, Royal Premiere-12th June 1952 Robert Taylor “Ivanhoe”, Royal Film Performance-27th October 1952 Mario Lanza “Because Your Mine”, Royal Film Performance-15th November 1954 Stewart Granger “Beau Brummel”, Royal World Premiere-16th May 1955 Richard Todd “The Dam Busters”, Royal Charity Premiere-16th November 1955 Jose Ferrer “Cockleshell Heroes”, Gala Charity Premiere-19th September 1956 Marlon Brando “Guys and Dolls”, Royal Charity Premiere-29th June 1957 Marlon Brando “Teahouse of the August Moon”, The Royal Film Performance-2nd February 1959 Alec Guinness “The Horses Mouth”.

A Gala European Charity Premiere-16th December 1959 Charlton Heston “Ben Hur” which ran for 76 weeks until 28th May 1961. This was the last film to be screened in the original auditorium. For this final presentation a new projection box was built in the centre of the stalls, beneath the front of the balcony (loosing half the stalls seating due to the projection box and bad sightlines of seating on the extreme edges). The projection had a straight throw of 78 feet to a new 52 feet masked wide screen which had been erected just in front of the proscenium arch. The seating capacity was reduced to 1,723.

With its attendance already declining before the “Ben Hur” run, and mounting criticism of the theatre’s technical quality, it had been decided to ’re-do' the theatre. It was closed and totally gutted internally. The building had been purchased by Mecca Ltd.

It re-opened on 19th December 1962 with Doris Day in “Jumbo”. The cinema had a completely new look inside the shell of the old theatre. Designed by noted cinema architect George Coles, his last major project, it was in a ‘modern’ style for the 1960’s. Seating was provided for 1,330 on a single floor which was formerly the circle, now extended forward. There were 688 in the front seating section and 642 in the former stepped section of the circle. The former stalls area became a Mecca Dance Hall (which in 2006, became a casino). The original façade was entirely covered by a new advertising hoarding. On 25th November 1965 the World Premiere of “Lady L” was held at the Empire Theatre. On 26th April 1966 a Royal European Gala Charity Premiere of “Doctor Zhivago” was held at the Empire Theatre and the film ran until 9th September 1968. This was followed by a revival of “Gone With the Wind”, presented in 70mm which ran for 10 months. “Ryan’s Daughter” was presented in 70mm from 9th December 1970 until 2nd February 1972. Loew’s/MGM sold the Empire Cinema to Cinema International Corporation(CIC) in 1973.

Later incorporating two other spaces, the adjacent Ritz Cinema and another small space off the foyer which opened as the 80 seat, Screen 3, on 29th November 1985 with Harrison Ford in “Witness”, the Empire Cinema was now a triplex. Many more premieres were held in the Empire Cinema’s magnificent main auditorium (Screen 1), which in 1989 was refurbished and was THX certified.

Seating 1,330 in the main Screen 1 (with a huge 60 feet wide by 25 feet high screen) and 77 in Screen 3. (Screen 2 in the former adjacent Ritz Cinema is listed separately as ‘Cineworld at the Empire Theatre - Screen 2’ on this site, and has a current seating capacity of 349). The façade has since been restored. After many years being operated by UCI it was taken over by the Irish based Empire Cinemas Ltd. as part of a new circuit they are now operating in the UK. In May 2007 the downstairs ballroom was converted into a casino. On 20th June 2008, two new screens 4 & 5 opened in spaces that had originally been a toilet area and green room. In August 2009, a further four screens were created in the building, giving a total of eight screens, plus one screen in the former adjacent Ritz Cinema which was known as ‘Screen 2’.

The final world premiere held in Screen 1 was the One Direction film “One Direction:This Is Us” on 21st August 2013. George Coles designed Screen 1 was closed for redevelopment on 26th August 2013 with the horror film “Big Bad Wolves” screening as part of the annual weekend ‘Frightfest’.

Screen 1 was then sub-divided to provide a 398-seat ‘Impact’ screen with Atmos sound, which has a stadium seated main floor and also seating provided in a balcony (in the former Empire Theatre’s stage house). It opened on 16th May 2014. It is located in the screen end of the former Empire 1, with its huge ‘Impact’ screen now back to back with the new IMAX screen next door.

The 723-seat IMAX screen which opened on 30th May 2014 is located in the former rear seating area of Screen 1, and has retained some of the cinema’s 1962 George Coles designed decoration, with illuminated troughs across the ceiling and down the side-walls which have ever-changing colours. The conversion was carried out to the plans of architectural firm UNICK Architects.

The Empire was one of five Empire cinemas purchased by Cineworld in July 2016, the others were Basildon, Hemel Hempstead, Poole and Bromley. The deal also included that Empire Theatres would take over the Cineworld Haymarket. The Cineworld Cinema Leicester Square was closed on 7th January 2018 for refurbishment and re-opened 9th February 2018.

Recent comments (view all 727 comments)

CF100 on September 8, 2022 at 4:13 pm

Cineworld have announced:

“Cineworld and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Group Chapter 11 Companies”) have commenced Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (the “Court”).”

Source: Cineworld Group plc - Announcement.

The above link is to a newly launched website pertaining to the proceedings, under the domain cineworldstrong.com, a somewhat odd name.

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Meanwhile, IMAX’s CFO states that IMAX sites operate under a master lease agreement that covers all of an operator’s locations. She goes on to suggest:

“[If they’re going to operate they will] clean up the under-performing complexes and either sell them off or do something with them. But that’s not where IMAX screens are — IMAX screens are all in the top-performing complexes.”

Clearly, in a world where “tentpole” releases still drawn in crowds, whilst streaming is snapping on the heels of mid-budget titles, a cinema with 3 premium format screens, one of which is exceptional, and 6 “studio” sized auditoria, is configured in a way that is more suitable than “megaplexes”…

theatreofvarieties on June 23, 2023 at 5:57 am

CF 100 - yes there was removal of asbestos on the boiler pipework and some elements of the structural steels. No, the decorative plasterwork did not contain asbestos, it was tested for it before removal.

theatreofvarieties on June 23, 2023 at 6:03 am

I’m having a clear out and have some of the original reclining seats from Empire 1 that were removed when it was converted to IMAX. Would anyone be interested in one?

CF100 on June 23, 2023 at 2:54 pm

theatreofvarieties: Many thanks for offering the original Empire 1 seats. I’d love to have one… how can we go about arranging this?

theatreofvarieties on September 4, 2023 at 2:19 pm

CF100 - please send me your contact details to

Lionel on September 4, 2023 at 2:36 pm

Royal Film Performance 1997 for TITANIC in 70mm. Nice views of the marquee, foyer and projection booth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfquSxcN084&t=1s

Lionel on October 2, 2023 at 10:37 pm

Another picture of the marquee in the 1990s:

https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-image-empire-cinema-london-england-image63186885

Zappomatic on February 16, 2024 at 10:26 am

IMAX screen replaced this week https://x.com/marcusryder/status/1757395406235840768?s=20

CF100 on September 2, 2024 at 11:52 am

The link Zappomatic posted to the video showing the installation of the IMAX screen is no longer working.

However, it’s also been posted by Cineworld on Facebook.

Some comments:

• It appears that Maeve Contractors (IMAX conversion, 2018 Cineworld refurbishment, etc.) were again involved in this.
• The numerous shakers (to reduce laser speckle) can be seen mounted off the screen frame.
• Diagonal members of the primary roof truss can be seen boxed out just behind the sides of the screen frame, as well as two trusses either side. (More on this to come in another post, referencing a 1928 Architectural Review article.)
• With the screen removed, it’s more obvious just how far into the former stalls the acoustic wall behind the screen is.
• Was IMAX’s spray-painted coating pre-applied to the screen? My understanding is that for the largest scale IMAX venues it has to be done in-situ, because there is not enough space in the manufacturing facility(/ies) to hang the screen. Perhaps this applies to 1.43 ratio screens where there is insufficient height; it can certainly be seen in videos of screen replacements over at the BFI showing the computer-controlled rig used.

Having attended a few performances since the installation of the replacement screen:

• Perhaps surprisingly, I couldn’t discern any substantive difference in picture quality, e.g., brightness.
• The projection had “developed” an issue where a grid pattern of boxes that were of lower illumination could be seen across the screen. It was more noticeable in high illuminated uniform areas of the picture. This problem appears to have been resolved.
• Possibly, some other subtle digital artifacts have been reduced.

Additional comments:

• During one performance, due to a particularly irritating person sitting in the adjacent seat, I moved to the far back audience left.
• When seated centrally, the centre-to-edge brightness loss remains. However, in this off-centre seating position, the opposite side of the screen became relatively brighter, and hence is caused by the gain/directionality of the screen material.
• There are four Tannoy speakers mounted on the rear wall under the booth level overhang. It turns out that these are fill speakers for the rear surrounds, and are effective. For example, foley panned from the left side speaker to the left surround speaker could be perceived as intended.

Finally, the seating in the IMAX auditorium, particularly in the “sweet spot” central area, is getting tired with one or two cases of poor quality attempts at reupholstering them. AFAIK the supplier (Seating Concepts) is no longer in business. On all occasions, the auditorium was also in need of a full clean.

CF100 on September 15, 2024 at 4:14 pm

An article on p24 of the Kinematograph Weekly, Thursday 7th January 1960 titled “Preparing The Empire for ‘Ben-Hur’–Special problems required drastic alterations” contains quite a bit of information on the 1959 alterations made for “Ben Hur.”

Some of the key points:

• Seating capacity was reduced by 1000 to 1725. (?–albeit the exact count is rather moot now…)
• Projection throw was reduced to 78ft.
• The new screen was a Superla pearl, 56ft. wide (width of projected image 52ft.)
• For acoustic isolation, the new booth positioned in the rear stalls was built with “two shells.” The inner was built on piers down to foundations to isolate it from the main building structure. The article notes this was successful, as only during changeovers could faint sounds generated within be heard during quiet scenes, if seated nearby.
• Water cooling was required for the arc and projectors.
• Other changes included covering the new booth and disused stalls with “wine-coloured non-flam silk.”
• The general contractor was G.E. Wallis, ventilation/plumbing by J. Jeffreys and Co and A.E. Mohring was consulting engineer (all same as the 1962 reconstruction.)
• The architect for the scheme was George Coles (!) (err… same as the 1962 reconstruction.)

The article notes that “Ben-Hur” would be the last film to play at the Empire, with its run anticipated to last 12-15 months, upon which “the theatre was to be demolished and replaced with a smaller cinema.” Of course, literally speaking, this turned out to not quite be the case–though it would be no exaggeration to describe the 1962 reconstruction scheme as “drastic!”