Letterboxd Users Aim for Community Ownership

A novel campaign, Letterboxd4All, is underway, spearheaded by Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative, a public benefit company. This initiative encourages Letterboxd users to pool their resources for a collective bid to acquire the movie review website. The campaign emerges as Letterboxd's majority owner, Tiny, reportedly seeks bids exceeding $300 million from interested parties including Sony and The New York Times.

Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative states it has secured institutional investor backing and is now appealing to Letterboxd's user base for additional funding. They highlight that the platform's valuation reflects the creative contributions of its users over the years. The company's founder, Elizabeth Joyce, expressed frustration over value extraction from communities and stated their model aims to make communities the owners, not the product.

Previously, Intrinsic's campaign in August focused on maintaining Letterboxd as a discovery platform for independent filmmakers, especially with the rise of self-distribution. Joyce stressed the importance of aligned incentives between investors, businesses, and filmmakers in the evolving landscape of cinema. The initiative seeks to create new avenues for filmmakers to connect with audiences authentically, moving away from pay-to-play environments.

Support for the Letterboxd4All campaign includes notable figures from the film industry, such as producer Ted Hope and director Carlos Lopez Estrada. They believe community ownership could serve as a vital alternative to corporate consolidation and unsustainable industry practices, offering a lifeline for cinema's future.