A chronological list of films which include a musical Overture at the beginning, against a blank screen or still pictures. Not included are films where an overture is used to present the credits, or underscored scenes that are already part of the plot. Often, but not necessarily, these films also include an entr'acte and separate exit music.
This list documents the rise and fall of the Overture/Roadshow practice over film history.
In many cases, these overtures have been cut from TV and video releases and can only be found on "restored" DVD versions.
The "Golden Age" Era
- The Jazz Singer (1927)
- The Desert Song (1929)
- Show Boat (1929)
- Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)
- No, No Nanette (1930)
- Viennese Nights (1930)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
- Marie Antoinette (1938)
- Gone with the Wind (1939)
- This is the Army (1943)
- Since You Went Away (1944)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Duel in the Sun (1946)
- Joan of Arc (1948)
Note: The "lost overture" to King Kong (1933), which was released in 2005 on DVD, is in fact a montage of music recordings from the film spliced together for that specific release. There was no overture in the original release.
1950-1970
- How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
- Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
- East of Eden (1955)
- Oklahoma! (1955)
- High Society (1956)
- The Ten Commandments (1956)
- Raintree County (1957)
- South Pacific (1958)
- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- Spartacus (1960)
- The Alamo (1960)
- West Side Story (1961) (An overture, presented onscreen, which is not present in the stage version)
- The King and I (1961 reissue)
- Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
- King of Kings (1961)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- How The West Was Won (1962)
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
- The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
- My Fair Lady (1964) (onscreen, over flower montage that becomes main title)
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
- Doctor Zhivago (1965)
- Battle of the Bulge (1965)
- The Great Race (1965) (with chorus)
- The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
- Grand Prix (1966)
- Khartoum (1966)
- Hawaii (1966)
- Doctor Dolittle (1967)
- The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
- Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
- Ulysses (1967)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Ice Station Zebra (1968)
- Star! (1968) (onscreen, master shot of theatre stage)
- Funny Girl (1968)
- Oliver! (1968)
- The Lion in Winter (1968)
- The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
- Sweet Charity (1969) (Overture bridges seamlessly as picture fades into main titles)
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
- Ryan's Daughter (1970)
- Darling Lili (1970) (overture cut before theatrical release, added only to severely cut recent video version)
- Scrooge (1970)
After 1970
- 1776 (1972) (laserdisc version only)
- Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
- The Cowboys (1972)
- That's Entertainment! (1974)
- Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978) (an obvious nod to 2001:A Space Odyssey's Overture)
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (Also known as Ilia's Theme, available on the soundtrack album)
- Disney's The Black Hole (1979)
- Nineteen Eighty-four (1984)
- Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (original 1993 theatrical run only)
- Dancer in the Dark (2000)
- The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- Kingdom of Heaven (2005) (Roadshow and Director's Cut versions)
- Midnight in Paris (2011)
- Melancholia (2011)