St. Michael Cinema discovers massive credit card processing error

Movie customers asked to pay for uncharged tickets

A technology glitch caused the majority of ticket sales for a St. Michael movie theater to not be charged. FOX 9's Babs Santos has the full report.

ST. MICHAEL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A technology failure from February through November 2024 is hurting the St. Michael Cinema in a big way.

St. Michael Cinema payment error

The backstory:

Customers were using credit cards to buy tickets online, but the cinema’s credit card processing company failed to settle the transactions.

"It’s a sizable problem and it’s definitely going to take some strategic moves to make sure that we’re okay," St. Michael Cinema Manager Oslos told FOX 9 on Wednesday. "We’ve been working on it for months and we have switched credit card processors several months ago."

St. Michael Cinema says its losses amounted to about half of its ticket sale revenue at the time, and the theater blames the credit card processing company.

"We were able to identify every specific account and every specific transaction," Oslos said.

St. Michael Cinema’s agreement with its card processor shields the processor from liability for the error, so now the theater has started a local campaign asking previous moviegoers to come forward and close their tabs.