Letterboxd Is Up for Sale, and A24, Sony and the New York Times Are Bidding

Letterboxd is reportedly for sale with buyers including A24, Sony Pictures and The New York Times showing interest, and an asking price north of $300 million - roughly twenty times the roughly $15 million it’s projected to earn this year. Launched in 2011 by New Zealand designers Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, the platform has grown from 1.8 million users in 2020 to about 30 million today. Most users access it for free, while revenue comes from paid tiers (Pro at $19/year and Patron at $49/year) and advertising, creating a large, engaged, paying audience that many analysts view as highly attractive to potential acquirers.

The appeal for buyers is clear: a devoted user base that both pays and draws advertisers. But strategic fit and conflicts loom. An acquisition by A24 would align culturally - its films are heavily discussed and rated on the site - but would create obvious editorial and conflict-of-interest concerns, a problem equally relevant to a studio buyer like Sony. The New York Times seems to make the most conventional sense as an owner, though it brings its own baggage and critics. The piece frames the sale as a high-stakes matchup between brand alignment, commercial value and the governance issues that follow media ownership of influential communities.