Across the street from Portland’s iconic Powell’s Bookstore, you’ll find Living Room Theaters, an independent cinema that woke up to disastrous news on Friday morning.
CEO Steve Herring confirmed on Facebook that the company was “cruelly and randomly hit by a cyberattack on late Thursday evening, November 13th.” The attack took down “critical computer systems” and made the company “unable to operate” its theaters in Portland and Indianapolis.
The theater was set to show the new Wicked movie, along with three independent films. When patrons who were unaware of the cyberattack showed up for their shows, they found a “CLOSED” sign taped to the door. The website is also down. “Anyone know anything about this? It doesn’t look good,” one wrote on Reddit.
“Hi, I work at the theater and it was a ransomware attack,” someone replied. “Most systems are encrypted now and we cannot get access to them 🙁 This is the best job I’ve had, and I really hope we can get through this.”
We reached out to Living Room Theaters for confirmation and have not yet heard back.
“I hope they get to open again before Christmas,” says one commenter. “Sucks to see this happen to them. They’re one of the best theaters in Indy [Indianapolis],” added another.
If the theaters can’t reopen during the holidays, peak movie-going season, they will likely lose critical revenue. Still, Living Room Theaters vows to refund all unused tickets—as soon as its refund system is back up and running, that is.
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The company is no stranger to hardship, having opened its Indianapolis location in 2020, during the pandemic when theater viewership hit a low, the IndyStar reports. “I think it’s really important to plant a flag and say yes, we opened in 2020, even if it was the last weeks of the year,” Herring said at the time. “We’re also very excited to be welcoming the public in.”
Smaller cinemas like Living Room Theaters provide crucial viewership for lesser-known films, but they are increasingly rare. Even the nation’s largest chain, AMC, is struggling to get patrons in the door amid a 10% decline in attendees year-over-year, The Street reports. With high ticket prices, and studios quickly releasing films on streaming services, many prefer to stay home.
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It’s unclear who would target a small movie theater with a cyberattack. But as cybersecurity provider Coveware notes, smaller organizations are “easier to disrupt” than huge businesses. “Mid-market attacks…are relatively more likely to result in a ransom payment of lesser amount,” so some scammers “are increasingly leveraging this high-volume, low-demand strategy.”
In 2023, the FBI alerted a small utility company in Massachusetts that Chinese hackers had infiltrated its systems for months, to the utility company’s surprise.
Living Room Theaters is “in touch” with the FBI’s Portland office, according to Herring’s post, though that office told us it is “unable to confirm an investigation or details at this time.” It’s also reportedly working with the US Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, along with experts who can help “assess and remediate the damage to our systems,” it says.
“There is still no estimate for when we can return to normal operations,” Herring says. “Thank you all so much for your gracious patience and support while we work through this very difficult time.”
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