Thurso cinema opens three new screens after £500,000 expansion
Take a look inside the Caithness venue's new look
A far north cinema are welcoming movie-lovers to three new screens following their expansion.
Merlin Cinema in Thurso planned to add to the two screen venue when they took it over in 2015.
They were due to open the new screens during Easter last year, but were halted by the pandemic.
More than £500,000 has gone into revamping the multiplex cinema, with £100,000 spent on air conditioning alone.
Dark times for sector
New seating, projectors and audio equipment have also been installed at the venue, which opened screens three, fourth and five on Friday afternoon.
Despite dark times for the industry over the last 18 months, Merlin say the enthusiasm of moviegoers in Caithness reassured them.
Due to the UK being under different covid restrictions last year, at one point the Thurso cinema was one of only 11 cinemas operating throughout the country.
Operations Manager, Alex Jones, explains how many people turned up during the pandemic to watch re-runs of old films, as no new films were being released.
He said: "These were films you could buy for £4.99 in the supermarket, but they wanted to see them on the big screen.
"They wanted to take their children, they wanted to experience a night out, they were hungry still.
"We knew as dark as the industry was at that time, there was a future for cinema.
"I was really worried, even though I lived through home video, DVD, piracy and even streaming that this was going to be the one that finished us off.
"However, it only took a little while to realise no that’s not going to be the case, people are actually going to love this experience for some time."
Thurso cinema was initially 'vanity project'
Alex also admitted when Merlin took over the Thurso complex, he didn't expect it to become one of the company's top notch venues.
He added: "We wanted to be there, but almost like a vanity project.
"It was like a feather in our crown for our small little independent chain.
"It’s now all of a sudden, as of Friday, one of our premium locations.
"It’s not even ended yet, but we’re in excess of half a million to do this.
"Over £100,000 of that was in air conditioning alone.
"We recognise it’s going to be a long term pay back, but before the pandemic more people were going to the cinema in Britain that had gone in over 50 years.
"Streaming and satellite tv were still massive 18 months ago, yet it hadn’t effected cinema at all like it had effected DVDs, video and CDs. It hadn’t hit us.
"I think it’s just because it’s such an experience to go to the big screen."