The New York Times Acquires Letterboxd

Letterboxd is a well-known online platform, founded in 2011 by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, which isn’t a true social network, but remains a gathering place for cinephiles around the world, thanks to which they can keep a diary of the films they’ve watched (or those they want to watch), create lists, write their opinions, and interact with fellow enthusiasts. Many of you are probably members as well.
Well, for quite some time now several media companies had been vying with each other to acquire the platform, which in the meantime had been acquired 60% in 2023 by the Canadian fund Tiny for 50 million dollars, and which last April began searching for a buyer: in the race to purchase there remained two contenders, the ∫ and The New York Times Company, and the news of the latest hours is that the latter has won the auction for a price of $330 million. A figure decidedly high when you consider that Letterboxd’s expected profits for 2026 are only $15 million. The acquisition still needs to be ratified, and could still fall through, but everything points to the matter being resolved; according to early reports the NYT would have also discussed with the site’s founders to leave them in charge of their creation.
Letterboxd currently has 26 million users, although it is not specified what percentage of these are paying users, and for several months now it has launched its own digital rental service, Letterboxd Video Store, while a feature has been announced but without a precise date and the implementation that will allow users to log and comment on TV series as well as films or miniseries as is currently the case. The NYT could obviously implement Letterboxd’s features in many of its contents, or fold the paid subscription into its subscription packages that include the popular Games or sections such as The Athletic and Cooking.
That a media giant still attentive to content quality like the New York Times has taken an interest in a cinema platform where the worst excesses of social media are absent is in some way a signal that should give hope for the future to all of us working in the industry as professionals or enthusiasts.