This was originally an opera house called Empire Theatre and was established in 1908. It was constructed by global theatre entrepreneur Maurice Bandmann (initially spelt his surname with double n) in partnership with Arathoon Stephen, who had built the Grand Hotel. Word has it that Bandmann dropped the final 'n' in his surname during the early 20th century to make it less Germanic. Bandman had theatres in Egypt and had opened the Empire Theatre in Gibraltar. He had brought many international theatre stars to the Empire in Kolkata, including Matheson Lang in 1911-12, whose realistic acting style influenced such famous directors as Sisir Kumar Bhaduri. Rabindranath Tagore had performed at the Empire. In March 1919, he had delivered his lecture "The Centre of Indian Culture", originally written in English and containing his idea of Visva-Bharati, here. The ticket income went to support his institution in Santiniketan. In August 1923, he staged a revival of Bisarjan on consecutive evenings. At the age of 62, he played the young Jayasingha in these performances. On April 27, 1929, Bhairaber Bali, the first draft of his play Tapati, had premiered at the Empire. In March 1933, the Visva-Bharati troupe had returned from performing Tagore's Shapmochan in Lucknow. That was the first time that they had travelled with a Tagore play outside Bengal. Once back in Kolkata, they repeated it at the Empire. In 1939, it was taken over by Bengal Properties that was run by Ramesh Kapurchand Mehta and Brajlal Mehta. They converted it to a cinema hall with three floors and 736 seats and named it after their Roxy cinema in Bombay. The Mehtas were known for financing many Hindi production houses, including Navketan Films and RK Studios. Ramesh was based in Kolkata. He was involved in running Roxy and subsequently, Paradise. Ashok Kumar's Naya Sansar (1941) was the first film to have been screened there after it was named Roxy. It had run for 17 weeks. It also had an adjoining bar. Basanti (1942) had run for 50 weeks), while Kismat (1943) did even better. There are stories of Netaji having come over to Roxy to watch Ashok Kumar-starrer -- Kismat. Roxy had set a national record for running Kismat for three consecutive years till the Army took it over during World War II to turn it into a barrack. Record books state that Sajan (1945) ran for 16 weeks, Shabnam (1949) for 20 weeks, Mahal (1950) for 16 weeks, Bhabi (1958) for 54 weeks, Jungli (1962) for 51 weeks, Khandan (1965) for 25 weeks, Anurodh (1977) for 22 weeks, Jaan Tere Naam (1992) for 23 weeks. Maachis (1996) had run for 16 weeks. Viewers were so addicted that many would even watch four shows a day. People would often get into brawl over tickets and crib over why they were being sold in black. Since 2010, Roxy started screening two to three movies daily. The interest in watching movies on the big screen dipped. The cinema also underwent renovation in 2009. However, the lease that Bengal Properties had from KMC expired in 2006. Litigation started in 2009. In between, the hall was shut for two days in 2011. Thereafter, it remained open while the former lease owner was locked in a legal battle with KMC. In 2016, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court had issued an order against Bengal Properties. Taking due process of law, the order had stated that Bengal Properties either pay or evict. Subsequently, the land acquisition officer filed an eviction suit against them. That order came on March 6, 2020. Bengal Properties didn't contest any further. The last film to have been screened was Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship. Only 27 people had attended the 6 pm show at this theatre with a seating capacity of 730. In July 2021, Roxy cinema was used as a vaccination centre for Covid-19.