Colosseum Kino

The Colosseum cinema is operated by the Norwegian company Oslo cinema and is the largest cinema. The cinema building is located at the Fridtjof Nansen vei 8 in the district Majorstuen in Oslo. It has four cinema halls in different sizes, including the largest room, the " Colosseum 1 " with 978 seats.

Halls

Colosseum cinema has a total of 4 rooms, each with 978, 274, 151 and 115 seats in hall 1, 2, 3 and 4 The cinema hall " Colosseum 1 " in 1998 certified with the THX seal of quality of the George Lucas group of companies. Colosseum 1 has a screen in the dimension of 10 × 22 m and since July 2009, viewers can watch movies in digital format 3D movies in RealD.

History

The Colosseum theater was built by the architect Jacob Hansen and Gerhard Iversen and completed in 1928 and inaugurated. In the fall of 1952 Louis Armstrong gave a concert at the Colosseum cinema and on February 7, 1954 Billie Holiday gave a concert at the Colosseum. In 1954, the wide-screen format according to the method Anamorphic ( CinemaScope ) was introduced in the cinema and the first film was shown in this format, the American film was The Robe ( The Robe ). 1960 the system " Todd AO " was introduced (70 mm) at the Colosseum and the film South Pacific was the first of its kind in the Colosseum. During a test run demonstration by the projectionist of the film Mutiny on the Bounty was born on 15 February at 9.45 clock in fire. The summoned firefighters arrived quickly, but out of fear that could collapse the great dome, they limited their use only for external fire-fighting measures. At 10.45 came the first cracks on the dome and shortly after they crashed into the interior of the building. The Colosseum finally burned out completely. The Norwegian organizations Kinostyret and Oslo kinosaken formannskap decided on July 1, 1963 the reconstruction and renovation of the theater building. The company Stensrud & Son was awarded the contract as the general contractor and the architect Sverre Fehn was commissioned with the planning and with the explanations in this. Fehn decided that the dome be slightly larger than the previous building. Originally, the architect wanted to cover the dome with a bronze alloy, and it should be re-designed in a size similar to the dome of St. Peter 's Basilica in Rome. As these projects have but the budget significantly exceeded, these plans were discarded and designed slightly smaller and only with white color provided the dome. At a later dome restoration was coated with an asphalt rubber solution. On November 21, 1963 came again to a fire, which originated in connection to insulation during the construction work in the reconstruction of the Colosseum. The damage was, however, limited and delayed mainly only the date of completion. Upon completion, the theater was opened to the public again on 12 September 1964.

The Norwegian daily newspaper Nations reported in detail and described the solemn rededication as follows:

"With a sea of ​​flowers of poetry and song, with speeches before and after the opening show as well as a huge selection of guests from home and abroad ... The re-opening of the Colosseum was honored with a proper Saturday night gala. To the nearly 1,200 guests, the tickets for the film Lawrence of Arabia had, which was listed in Super Panavision 70 Technirama and distributed disguised sheikhs and veiled girls in the hall Chocolate ... That was obviously not enough to treat for the eyes of the audience, which had been really wonderful to experience the white dizzying length in the hall to see the golden curtain and enjoy the comfortable red pews ... "

The Norwegian Kriminalkomödie Olsen Gang og Dynamitt Harry går amok from the film series of the Norwegian Olsen Gang not only had its premiere on 29 November 1973 at the Colosseum, but the cinema was at the same time the action location of the film. The protagonist Egon Olsen fled there after a failed burglary of the Olsen Gang in the Colosseum, the dome of the theater building, where he was eventually arrested. Even more movies of this popular series in Norway from 1969 to 1999 had, mostly in its premiere and were of high visitor numbers at the Colosseum cinema.

On 1 August 1987, the three smaller halls were " Colosseum 2-3-4 " opened and made ​​some further restoration work. After ten years experienced the cinema in 1997, again extensive renovation and refurbishment work. With the screening of the film Titanic, the Colosseum was re- inaugurated. In 2003 there was with the operator Oslo Kinematografer to large restructuring measures, after which the Colosseum was privatized. The following year, however, the cinema was by difficulties of the private operator Colosseum Eiendom AS, taken back by the Association Kinematografer Oslo, Oslo Kino.