Peninsula residents can now enjoy top movies such as Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, Patch Adams, Waking Ned Devine and Rug Rats.

Council's Building Assessment Team manager, Mr Steve Huntington, said the certificate was valid for 60 days.

"Council is very supportive of the cinema," he said.

"We acted as fast as we could to get the cinema open over Easter."

Mr Huntington said the main item to be completed was for the cinema to install a lift so the elderly and disabled can access the cinema.

Other items include the installation of a landline alarm system to the fire brigade rather than to the current security firm and the installation of more exit signs.

Mayor Cr Chris Holstein said that there was no obligation on the council to issue an occupation certificate until the project was totally completed.

The council had issued an interim certificate because work had been undertaken to meet the council's concerns and the work which remained to be done did not endanger life.

He said the council saw the social benefit of a cinema for the Peninsula and was keen to have it operational, particularly for the youth of the area.

However, despite the apparently conciliatory attitude of the council, cinema owner Mr Jerry Altavilla was still angry at the treatment he had received.

He was critical of what he called "the unnecessary force" with which the regulations were applied, as well as "the way that they took me to court with only two hours notice".

Mr Altavilla said the closure at short notice left over 600 patrons stranded on the footpath, many of those being children dropped off by their parents unaware that they were left unsupervised.

Cr Holstein said the council had spoken to Mr Altavilla for months about his need to comply with the regulations and the fact that the cinema would not be permitted to operate until it did. The owner had plenty of warning of the closure, he said.

He said the council had a "duty of care" to ensure the cinema was safe and had adequate fire protection.

The council had voted unanimously to close the cinema until the required measures were taken.

He said that had the owner adhered to the building code in the first place the closure would not have been necessary.

Cr Lynne Bockholt said that the cinema had originally opened in the first place without the required completion certificate.

The matter had been before the Land and Environment three times with the outcome in the council's favor each time, she said.

Mr Altavilla said: "I was willing to comply with all requirements and needed only a notice of what was needed to be rectified and a few days to do so and the closure could have been saved."

"What they did to me was totally unfair and unnecessary. It cost me over $16,000 a day in legal costs and 15 people were put out of work for two months," he said.

As Mr Altavilla spoke to Peninsula News he became increasingly agitated: "It all came down to a secondary stairwell that didn’t have a fire proof wall," he said.

"In any case, the stairwell only affects one cinema and the other cinema could have remained open.

"Closing of the entire venue appears to be extremely drastic."

Mr Altavilla said he could not agree more with the utmost need for the safety of patrons and he had spent thousands of dollars to ensure that there was not even the slightest risk.