New York Times Company in Talks to Buy Letterboxd for About $330 Million

The New York Times Company is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Letterboxd for roughly $330 million, the Times reported Thursday. That price works out to more than 20 times the online film community's projected 2026 earnings of about $15 million. The deal is not yet final, according to the paper.

Letterboxd, founded in 2011 and based in New Zealand, counts some 30 million users who track the films they watch and rate titles with a star system. Co-founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow are expected to stay on and run the platform, reporting to a New York Times executive, the report said.

What does this change for Letterboxd's 30 million users?

Probably not much, at least on paper. The platform's core features are free, and its money comes from two paid tiers:

• Pro, $19 a year — removes ads and adds personalization features
• Patron, $49 a year — adds customized posters and backdrops plus access to some beta features

The site also launched an online film-rental platform last year, available in 23 countries. If the deal closes, that commerce and subscription business would sit inside a company that has spent the past several years buying engagement-driven products.

The purchase would follow a familiar pattern. The Times has already acquired sports site The Athletic, product-review service Wirecutter and the hit game Wordle — all subscription- or engagement-based properties meant to keep readers inside the Times ecosystem. Letterboxd fits the same logic: a passionate, self-documenting community that logs in daily.

How did the bidding play out?

The $330 million figure didn't come out of nowhere. Variety reported in September that the Times and the film studio A24 were among the bidders, with Netflix, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Skydance, private-equity giant TPG and Reddit co-creator Alexis Ohanian also expressing interest.

A24 had promised to run the site independently but dropped out as the price climbed, according to the report. Letterboxd had been shopping itself to interested parties in recent months.

The valuation math explains the escalation. Tiny, a Canadian holding company, bought a 60% stake in Letterboxd in 2023 at a valuation of $50 million-$60 million. Buchanan and von Randow kept the remaining 40%. A $330 million sale would value the whole company at roughly six times that 2023 figure in about two years.

The New York Times Company had no comment.