Letterboxd has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. Once a niche site for only the most passionate movie buffs, the site allows users to rate, review and recommend movies to each other, and has continued to add tens of millions of accounts, driven largely by interest from millennials and Gen Z. Now the company’s controlling investor has made it clear that they are looking to cash out.
Semafor reported Sunday that Canadian holding company Tiny, which owns about 60% of Letterboxd, is courting a variety of potential buyers, including CNBC’s parent company Versant and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC). Another potential buyer, according to Semafor, is popular Hollywood newsletter The Ankler. Tiny purchased the platform in 2023, valuing it at over $50 million. It’s unclear whether the company is close to any kind of deal.
Representatives for Letterboxd and Tiny did not immediately comment when contacted by TechCrunch.
Founded in 2011, Letterboxd has seen a surge in users over the past few years, growing from 1.7 million in 2020 to about 26 million this year, according to The New York Times. In recent years, the site has garnered attention from film studios, which see it as a vehicle for marketing their films and a source of information on moviegoing trends, as well as the Oscars, which collaborated with the social platform in a digital content partnership a few years ago.
