"We'll have a three-month calendar and similar programming as the Astor has had before," he says. "We'll still be showing the films George owns. We want people to feel it's just the same."

Drama: Ralph Taranto, left, and George Florence, on the day Mr Taranto's purchase of the building was announced. The two were soon at loggerheads. Credit:Luis Ascui

Contracts were exchanged late on Thursday, bringing to an end a protracted battle that began in May 2012 when it emerged that then-owner St Michael's Grammar School planned a major redevelopment of the building. After a massive public campaign against the move, the school sold the building in August 2012 to Ralph Taranto, who continues to own it through his company Ralamar Nominees.

Despite early hopes that Mr Taranto would transfer ownership of the building to a trust that would have the power to safeguard its continued existence as a single-screen venue dedicated to film projection – one of the last of its kind in Australia, and certainly the largest still-operating relic of the era of the picture palace in Melbourne – tensions soon emerged between the new owner and Mr Florence, who has been the tenant since 1982.

By April 2014, their dispute was in VCAT, with restraining orders being issued and urgent repair works on hold.