The online film review platform Letterboxd is being eyed by some of the largest entertainment companies, as talks have circulated about a potential sale. The potential buyers include streaming giants and media conglomerates, which is raising questions about whether the platform could remain an unbiased space for users’ opinions when it is majority-owned by companies that have a stake in a film’s success.
What Is Letterboxd?
Letterboxd is a platform that allows users to create a diary of films they have watched. Letterboxd allows film buffs to rate each movie they watch and share reviews with friends and other users. The platform was founded in 2011 by two New Zealanders, Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow. Despite selling partial ownership, they still own 40% of the company. Buchanan and von Randow started Letterboxd as an online film rental service before changing focus to film discovery and reviews.
Talks With Potential Buyers
Letterboxd’s majority owners, the Canadian investment firm Tiny, recently held early talks about a sale with potential buyers. Letterboxd is currently valued at $250 million, making this a large investment, even for media giants. The list of potential buyers includes some of the largest names in entertainment, such as Netflix, Sony, and Paramount Skydance. Little is known about this potential sale, but in a recent statement, Letterboxd representatives said that any decision about the future of the platform would involve the owners.
Controversies Over Media Consolidation
This decision comes amid a large push for consolidation within entertainment. Many companies have faced buyouts and mergers in recent years. Paramount, a potential buyer of Letterboxd, recently merged with Warner Brothers Discovery. This combined two of the largest media conglomerates into one, creating an uncertain future as both companies own massive streaming platforms. Little is known about this merger going forward, but both platforms will likely be combined. As the entertainment industry becomes more and more consolidated, consumers have begun to grow worried. Film and TV fans are concerned about things such as the illusion of choice and the suppression of consumer voices.
Letterboxd users are not thrilled with the idea of the company being owned by a streaming service. Many users believe that this could cause biases on the platform and limit users from fully expressing their opinions. This could potentially lead to suppression of negative reviews of films the platform’s owners have produced.
How Has a Buyout Affected Other Platforms?
As the controversy around a review platform being owned by a streaming service has circulated, many have pointed out that this is not a new occurrence. Users pointed out that other review platforms have been bought out by media conglomerates in the past. One of the most prominent examples is Rotten Tomatoes. Warner Brothers partially owns Rotten Tomatoes, and despite this, it still remains one of the most popular film review platforms.
This sale could also lead to massive boycotts of the platform, as it has in the past for other platforms, such as Goodreads. After Goodreads was bought out by Amazon in 2013, many users have expressed frustration with the platform, as they do not want to support Amazon. This has led many potential Goodreads users to pivot to other platforms such as Storygraph.
The future of Letterboxd remains uncertain as of now, since little information regarding the sale has been released. However, if this sale goes through, it could lead to massive changes for the platform, even turning it into a vein of data for streaming services to mine from. Users do not view this future positively, which could see a massive fall-off in the platform’s popularity, meaning Letterboxd’s owners must be very careful with this decision.
