Letterboxd, the app where film Twitter went to live, is finalizing a sale to The New York Times in a deal that values the site at $330M, according to a report from, who else, the New York Times.
When this sale first leaked back in September, the bidders also included Sony, and A24, and I'll be honest, I was quietly rooting against the studios. The idea of Sony or A24 owning the very platform where people rate their movies just felt wrong.
Nothing has been signed yet, and these things can still fall apart at the last minute, but the two sides are now in exclusive negotiations. That's usually the point where a deal does get made.
That $330M is more than 20 times the roughly $15M Letterboxd is projected to earn this year. That's a staggering multiple for a website where half the reviews are snarky one-liners. The Times is of course paying for the audience. Letterboxd has close to 31 million members, up 43% from a year ago, and it only had 1.8 million members in 2020. The growth is insane.
Letterboxd, the app where film Twitter went to live, is finalizing a sale to The New York Times in a deal that values the site at $330M, according to a report from, who else, the New York Times.