diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter.ts
index df85976e20..ae0eb2a663 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter.ts
@@ -26,14 +26,7 @@ export class TypeScriptNodeEmitter {
         ...stmts.map(stmt => stmt.visitStatement(converter, null)).filter(stmt => stmt != null));
     const preambleStmts: ts.Statement[] = [];
     if (preamble) {
-      if (preamble.startsWith('/*') && preamble.endsWith('*/')) {
-        preamble = preamble.substr(2, preamble.length - 4);
-      }
-      const commentStmt = ts.createNotEmittedStatement(sourceFile);
-      ts.setSyntheticLeadingComments(
-          commentStmt,
-          [{kind: ts.SyntaxKind.MultiLineCommentTrivia, text: preamble, pos: -1, end: -1}]);
-      ts.setEmitFlags(commentStmt, ts.EmitFlags.CustomPrologue);
+      const commentStmt = this.createCommentStatement(sourceFile, preamble);
       preambleStmts.push(commentStmt);
     }
     const sourceStatments =
@@ -42,6 +35,19 @@ export class TypeScriptNodeEmitter {
     const newSourceFile = ts.updateSourceFileNode(sourceFile, sourceStatments);
     return [newSourceFile, converter.getNodeMap()];
   }
+
+  /** Creates a not emitted statement containing the given comment. */
+  createCommentStatement(sourceFile: ts.SourceFile, comment: string): ts.Statement {
+    if (comment.startsWith('/*') && comment.endsWith('*/')) {
+      comment = comment.substr(2, comment.length - 4);
+    }
+    const commentStmt = ts.createNotEmittedStatement(sourceFile);
+    ts.setSyntheticLeadingComments(
+        commentStmt,
+        [{kind: ts.SyntaxKind.MultiLineCommentTrivia, text: comment, pos: -1, end: -1}]);
+    ts.setEmitFlags(commentStmt, ts.EmitFlags.CustomPrologue);
+    return commentStmt;
+  }
 }
 
 // A recorded node is a subtype of the node that is marked as being recoreded. This is used
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter_transform.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter_transform.ts
index 466664042e..0f2e4f6fb7 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter_transform.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/node_emitter_transform.ts
@@ -12,26 +12,68 @@ import * as ts from 'typescript';
 import {TypeScriptNodeEmitter} from './node_emitter';
 import {GENERATED_FILES} from './util';
 
-const PREAMBLE = `/**
-* @fileoverview This file was generated by the Angular template compiler.
-* Do not edit.
-* @suppress {suspiciousCode,uselessCode,missingProperties,missingOverride,checkTypes}
-* tslint:disable
-*/`;
+function getPreamble(original: string) {
+  return `/**
+ * @fileoverview This file was generated by the Angular template compiler. Do not edit.
+ * ${original}
+ * @suppress {suspiciousCode,uselessCode,missingProperties,missingOverride,checkTypes}
+ * tslint:disable
+ */`;
+}
 
-export function getAngularEmitterTransformFactory(generatedFiles: Map<string, GeneratedFile>): () =>
+/**
+ * Returns a transformer that does two things for generated files (ngfactory etc):
+ * - adds a fileoverview JSDoc comment containing Closure Compiler specific "suppress"ions in JSDoc.
+ *   The new comment will contain any fileoverview comment text from the original source file this
+ *   file was generated from.
+ * - updates generated files that are not in the given map of generatedFiles to have an empty
+ *   list of statements as their body.
+ */
+export function getAngularEmitterTransformFactory(
+    generatedFiles: Map<string, GeneratedFile>, program: ts.Program): () =>
     (sourceFile: ts.SourceFile) => ts.SourceFile {
   return function() {
     const emitter = new TypeScriptNodeEmitter();
     return function(sourceFile: ts.SourceFile): ts.SourceFile {
       const g = generatedFiles.get(sourceFile.fileName);
+      const orig = g && program.getSourceFile(g.srcFileUrl);
+      let originalComment = '';
+      if (orig) originalComment = getFileoverviewComment(orig);
+      const preamble = getPreamble(originalComment);
       if (g && g.stmts) {
-        const [newSourceFile] = emitter.updateSourceFile(sourceFile, g.stmts, PREAMBLE);
+        const orig = program.getSourceFile(g.srcFileUrl);
+        let originalComment = '';
+        if (orig) originalComment = getFileoverviewComment(orig);
+        const [newSourceFile] = emitter.updateSourceFile(sourceFile, g.stmts, preamble);
         return newSourceFile;
       } else if (GENERATED_FILES.test(sourceFile.fileName)) {
-        return ts.updateSourceFileNode(sourceFile, []);
+        // The file should be empty, but emitter.updateSourceFile would still add imports
+        // and various minutiae.
+        // Clear out the source file entirely, only including the preamble comment, so that
+        // ngc produces an empty .js file.
+        return ts.updateSourceFileNode(
+            sourceFile, [emitter.createCommentStatement(sourceFile, preamble)]);
       }
       return sourceFile;
     };
   };
 }
+
+/**
+ * Parses and returns the comment text (without start and end markers) of a \@fileoverview comment
+ * in the given source file. Returns the empty string if no such comment can be found.
+ */
+function getFileoverviewComment(sourceFile: ts.SourceFile): string {
+  const trivia = sourceFile.getFullText().substring(0, sourceFile.getStart());
+  const leadingComments = ts.getLeadingCommentRanges(trivia, 0);
+  if (!leadingComments || leadingComments.length === 0) return '';
+  const comment = leadingComments[0];
+  if (comment.kind !== ts.SyntaxKind.MultiLineCommentTrivia) return '';
+  // Only comments separated with a \n\n from the file contents are considered file-level comments
+  // in TypeScript.
+  if (sourceFile.getFullText().substring(comment.end, comment.end + 2) !== '\n\n') return '';
+  const commentText = sourceFile.getFullText().substring(comment.pos, comment.end);
+  // Closure Compiler ignores @suppress and similar if the comment contains @license.
+  if (commentText.indexOf('@license') !== -1) return '';
+  return commentText.replace(/^\/\*\*/, '').replace(/ ?\*\/$/, '');
+}
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/program.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/program.ts
index e3fa89f936..5ee63237d6 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/program.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/src/transformers/program.ts
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ class AngularCompilerProgram implements Program {
     if (!this.options.disableExpressionLowering) {
       beforeTs.push(getExpressionLoweringTransformFactory(this.metadataCache, this.tsProgram));
     }
-    beforeTs.push(getAngularEmitterTransformFactory(genFiles));
+    beforeTs.push(getAngularEmitterTransformFactory(genFiles, this.getTsProgram()));
     if (customTransformers && customTransformers.beforeTs) {
       beforeTs.push(...customTransformers.beforeTs);
     }
@@ -628,15 +628,12 @@ class AngularCompilerProgram implements Program {
     // Filter out generated files for which we didn't generate code.
     // This can happen as the stub caclulation is not completely exact.
     // Note: sourceFile refers to the .ngfactory.ts / .ngsummary.ts file
+    // node_emitter_transform already set the file contents to be empty,
+    //  so this code only needs to skip the file if !allowEmptyCodegenFiles.
     const isGenerated = GENERATED_FILES.test(outFileName);
-    if (isGenerated) {
-      if (!genFile || !genFile.stmts || genFile.stmts.length === 0) {
-        if (this.options.allowEmptyCodegenFiles) {
-          outData = '';
-        } else {
-          return;
-        }
-      }
+    if (isGenerated && !this.options.allowEmptyCodegenFiles &&
+        (!genFile || !genFile.stmts || genFile.stmts.length === 0)) {
+      return;
     }
     if (baseFile) {
       sourceFiles = sourceFiles ? [...sourceFiles, baseFile] : [baseFile];
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
index f9da91cbbc..f282628c6e 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngc_spec.ts
@@ -249,6 +249,90 @@ describe('ngc transformer command-line', () => {
           .toBe(true);
     });
 
+    describe('comments', () => {
+      function compileAndRead(contents: string) {
+        writeConfig(`{
+          "extends": "./tsconfig-base.json",
+          "files": ["mymodule.ts"],
+          "angularCompilerOptions": {"allowEmptyCodegenFiles": true}
+        }`);
+        write('mymodule.ts', contents);
+
+        const exitCode = main(['-p', basePath], errorSpy);
+        expect(exitCode).toEqual(0);
+
+        const modPath = path.resolve(outDir, 'mymodule.ngfactory.js');
+        expect(fs.existsSync(modPath)).toBe(true);
+        return fs.readFileSync(modPath, {encoding: 'UTF-8'});
+      }
+
+      it('should be added', () => {
+        const contents = compileAndRead(`
+        import {CommonModule} from '@angular/common';
+        import {NgModule} from '@angular/core';
+
+        @NgModule({
+          imports: [CommonModule]
+        })
+        export class MyModule {}
+      `);
+        expect(contents).toContain('@fileoverview');
+        expect(contents).toContain('generated by the Angular template compiler');
+        expect(contents).toContain('@suppress {suspiciousCode');
+      });
+
+      it('should be merged with existing fileoverview comments', () => {
+        const contents = compileAndRead(`/** Hello world. */
+
+        import {CommonModule} from '@angular/common';
+        import {NgModule} from '@angular/core';
+
+        @NgModule({
+          imports: [CommonModule]
+        })
+        export class MyModule {}
+      `);
+        expect(contents).toContain('Hello world.');
+      });
+
+      it('should only pick file comments', () => {
+        const contents = compileAndRead(`
+          /** Comment on class. */
+          class MyClass {
+
+          }
+        `);
+        expect(contents).toContain('@fileoverview');
+        expect(contents).not.toContain('Comment on class.');
+      });
+
+      it('should not be merged with @license comments', () => {
+        const contents = compileAndRead(`/** @license Some license. */
+
+        import {CommonModule} from '@angular/common';
+        import {NgModule} from '@angular/core';
+
+        @NgModule({
+          imports: [CommonModule]
+        })
+        export class MyModule {}
+      `);
+        expect(contents).toContain('@fileoverview');
+        expect(contents).not.toContain('@license');
+      });
+
+      it('should be included in empty files', () => {
+        const contents = compileAndRead(`/** My comment. */
+
+        import {Inject, Injectable, Optional} from '@angular/core';
+
+        @Injectable()
+        export class NotAnAngularComponent {}
+      `);
+        expect(contents).toContain('My comment');
+      });
+    });
+
     it('should compile with an explicit tsconfig reference', () => {
       writeConfig(`{
           "extends": "./tsconfig-base.json",
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/test/transformers/program_spec.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/test/transformers/program_spec.ts
index b54248d5cc..fa387a7098 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/test/transformers/program_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/test/transformers/program_spec.ts
@@ -437,7 +437,8 @@ describe('ng program', () => {
                  sf => sf.fileName === path.join(testSupport.basePath, checks.originalFileName)))
           .toBe(true);
       if (checks.shouldBeEmpty) {
-        expect(writeData !.data).toBe('');
+        // The file should only contain comments (the preamble comment added by ngc).
+        expect(writeData !.data).toMatch(/^(\s*\/\*([^*]|\*[^/])*\*\/\s*)?$/);
       } else {
         expect(writeData !.data).not.toBe('');
       }