List of films with overtures

This is a chronological partial 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 exit music (after the credits).

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 (and sometimes, not even on those).

The "Golden Age" era

• Don Juan (1926)
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
• Noah's Ark (1928)
• Warming Up (1928)
• The Desert Song (1929)
• Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
• Paris (1929)
• Sally (1929)
• Show Boat (1929)
• The Show of Shows (1929)
• Hell's Angels (1930)
• Mammy (1930)
• No, No Nanette (1930)
• Viennese Nights (1930)
• One Hour With You (1932)
• King Kong (1933)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• Marie Antoinette (1938)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• Best Foot Forward (1943)
• This is the Army (1943)
• The Song of Bernadette (1943) (included on the soundtrack CD, but never included on any VHS release, DVD release, or telecast of the film)
• 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 first premiered on the channel Turner Classic Movies in 2005 and was released on DVD that same year, 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

• Quo Vadis (1951)
• How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
• Julius Caesar (1953) (not used at the last minute)
• Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
• East of Eden (1955)
• Oklahoma! (1955)
• High Society (1956)
• The Ten Commandments (1956)
• Raintree County (1957)
• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) (included on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• South Pacific (1958)
• Windjammer (1958)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
• The Alamo (1960)
• Spartacus (1960)
• El Cid (1961)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The King and I (1961 reissue)
• King of Kings (1961)
• West Side Story (1961) (presented onscreen over abstract artwork)
• How The West Was Won (1962)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
• The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
• 55 Days at Peking (1963)
• 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)
• Battle of the Bulge (1965)
• Doctor Zhivago (1965)
• The Great Race (1965) (with chorus)
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
• The Sound of Music (1965) (overture and preludium; Dixit Dominus)
• Grand Prix (1966)
• Hawaii (1966)
• Khartoum (1966)
• The Sand Pebbles (1966)
• Camelot (1967)
• Doctor Dolittle (1967)
• Far From the Madding Crowd (1967)
• The Happiest Millionaire (1967) (mostly 70mm film prints and letterbox DVDs)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
• Ulysses (1967)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) (not an orchestral overture, but a sound montage of an auto race around the theater)
• Funny Girl (1968) (laserdisc version only)
• Ice Station Zebra (1968)
• The Lion in Winter (1968)
• Oliver! (1968) (laserdisc version only)
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
• Star! (1968) (onscreen, master shot of theatre stage)
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
• Sweet Charity (1969) (overture bridges seamlessly as picture fades into main titles)
• Darling Lili (1970) (overture cut before theatrical release, added only to severely cut recent video version)
• Ryan's Daughter (1970)
• Scrooge (1970) (mostly 70mm film prints and letterbox DVDs)

After 1970

• X, Y and Zee (1972) (overture cut before theatrical release, added only to severely cut recent video version)
• 1776 (1972) (laserdisc version only)
• The Cowboys (1972)
• Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
• Man of La Mancha (1972) (included as an extra after the film on the DVD, but heard in its proper place on the VHS release and in the theatrical release)
• That's Entertainment! (1974) (included on soundtrack, but not on any home video release)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (used to satirize overtures and opening credit sequences)
• Star Wars (1977) (listed and included as "Princess Leia's Theme" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978) (an obvious nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey's overture)
• Superman (1978) (listed and included as "The March of the Villains" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• The Black Hole (1979) (mostly 70mm film prints and letterbox DVDs)
• The China Syndrome (1979) (mostly 70mm film prints and letterbox DVDs)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (listed as "Ilia's Theme" on the soundtrack album)
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (listed and included as "Yoda's Theme" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Back Roads (1981) (mostly 70mm film prints and letterbox DVDs)
• Return of the Jedi (1983) (listed and included as "Luke and Leia" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) (a new overture for the 1992 extended version)
• Jurassic Park (1993) (listed and included as "Theme from Jurassic Park" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (roadshow presentations only)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) (listed and included as "The Lost World" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) (listed and included as "Anakin's Theme" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Dancer in the Dark (2000) (overture played with closed curtains in European theaters, released instead with an accompanying collage of paintings for (curtain-less) US cinemas)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) (listed and included as "Hedwig's Theme" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) (listed and included as "Across the Stars" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) (listed and included as "Harry's Wondrous World" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• The Producers (2005) Like the broadway show, a piece of overture happens before the opening number.
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005) (the director's cut is a roadshow presentation)
• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) (listed and included as "Battle of the Heroes" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• Melancholia (2011) (overture accompanies a collage of animated images of key moments in the film)
• Dhoom 3 (2013) (roadshow presentations only)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) (listed and included as "Rey's Theme" on the soundtrack album, but not on any home video release)
• The Hateful Eight (2015)