Its first in the UK was in
Bury, Greater Manchester. The grand opening was in June 1989, the opening film was
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege with stars of the film flown over for the event, in which
Bruce Willis was also at the event with
Liza Minnelli cutting the opening ribbon. The chain had 36 cinemas with 354 screens including the flagship in
Leicester Square when it was purchased by
SBC International Cinemas in May 2003. SBC rebranded all the cinemas as
Vue Cinemas starting in March 2004, including the refurbishment of the foyers, the lighting and replacing screen numbers in some cinemas. During the transition, some Warner Village locations retained the branding until early 2006 as some certain cinemas were owned and operated solely by
Village Roadshow Australia.
Warner West End The flagship and arguably most notable Warner Village Cinema was the
Warner West End in
Leicester Square, London, a multiplex that used to host Warner film premieres. This theatre features two bas-relief sculptures,
Sight and
Sound, sculpted by
Edward Bainbridge Copnall. This location had a history way back to the early days of motion pictures, with it being an original Warner Theatre from the early 20th Century. A notable event for this location was the 1993 premiere of the film
The Fugitive, this was a reopening of the location after a lengthy renovation to bring the location in line with the design of the 'Warner Cinemas' multiplex chain. The star of
The Fugitive,
Harrison Ford, attended to place a time capsule to commemorate the event. In 2003, during the Vue rebrand, this location became Vue West End. The interior formed in the 1993 reopening (aside from Warner logos) was maintained up until 2017, when Vue performed an overhaul renovation to the location to update the tired design and renew interest. ==Other territories==