1989 to 2020
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the state-owned cinema was privatized by the Treuhandanstalt. The Berlin film producer Artur Brauner and the Sputnik Group acquired the cinema as well as the old bus depot buildings on the neighboring property in 1992. From 1992, the newly founded Sputnik Colosseum Betrieb KG took over the management of the company. This was followed in 1997 by a joint operating company with Cinemaxx AG and the Colosseum now offered multiplex operation in ten screens.
Since a fundamental renovation in 1996-97, combined with a new building on both sites, the multiplex cinema had 2800 seats in ten theaters. But due to increasing competition, for example from the opening of a multiplex cinema in the neighboring Kulturbrauerei, the Colosseum's turnover plummeted. After Cinemaxx AG terminated the contract, the company UCI took over the continued operation of the cinema on September 1, 2006.
On March 24, 2020, the Colosseum closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 22, 2020, the owner, the Artur Brauner Heirs Association, filed for insolvency of the cinema with the district court, "[...] a cinema operation was no longer economically feasible." Numerous residents of Prenzlauer Berg campaigned for the preservation of the cinema with demonstrations and online petitions. The district of Pankow also wants to preserve the Colosseum as a cultural location.