Nelson Bay Cinema celebrates 10 years of movie magic in Port Stephens

For 10 years Nelson Bay Cinema has been the staple for locals of the Bay and for tourists, to enjoy the magic of movies and it's all thanks to director Neil Merrin.

Mr Merrin has always had a passion for the movie industry and began working the drive-ins when he was just 17 years-old.

"I've been working the industry now for 50 years. I started on the drive-ins in Sydney and I've been all over the place with them," he said.

On November 1, 2012 he purchased the site in Cinema Hall on Stockton Street. For the past decade, operating Nelson Bay Cinema has been a rollercoaster for Mr Merrin, who has experienced the highs and lows of the industry, from COVID lockdowns to sell-out sessions.

"I think particularly when you have a big movie, like we had last December - our first big thing before the next wave of COVID came through, was Spider-Man and we filled it to the to the last seat in cinema three. It was great," he said.

He said working those busy sessions was "always good" and school holidays were always a highlight for the cinema.

"We don't make a lot [of money] outside of school holidays, because we really just don't have the population, but school holidays is what allows us to make some money," he said.

"It's a tough long day when it's quiet."

Despite the slower days, Mr Merrin was thankful for the Bay community for supporting the cinema through its membership program.

"We do have a lot of local support with our VIP program which gives members a $10 ticket all year round," he said.

"It's good to have that because you want your locals to have that discount."

Over the years Mr Merrin has upgraded projectors and sound equipment to digital, repainted walls, changed carpet and added new seats with more works planned.

"It might be an old and tired sort of looking place but we're slowly doing it," he said.

"We have the plans to do cinema three, which is our big one. We had plans then they fell off a cliff in 2020 ... so we need to get back into a positive situation where we can afford to upgrade," he said.

He said June and July was his most successful months in 10 years, but August and September had been the worst.

"... and that's because product dropped off but now that movies are being filmed again we're going to have a lot more product coming through. Hopefully we'll be back to normal by the end of '23 and the start of '24," he said.

Despite the trying times, Mr Merrin said it has been "a good 10 years" and he was thankful to have some of his original staff members stick by him.

"We have a great team here, we've got five original out of the 16 staff that started with us," he said.

"it's been pretty good to be able to keep the staff."

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