{"id":356408,"date":"2026-09-25T04:32:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356408\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T04:32:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:32:36","slug":"as-letterboxd-come-in-from-the-new-york-times-co-a24-and-others-one-of-its-bankers-calls-it-a-phenomenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356408\/","title":{"rendered":"As Letterboxd Come In From The New York Times Co., A24 And Others, One Of Its Bankers Calls It “A Phenomenon”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith Letterboxd<\/a> acquisition talks heating up, dealmakers today touted the company as \u201ca phenomenon\u201d and a key to the 2026 box office revival.<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline has confirmed that The New York Times<\/a> and A24<\/a> have put in second-round bids for the film-centric, hugely popular social media site founded by a duo of New Zealand tech entrepreneurs in 2011. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe NYT itself was the first to report interest by its own parent company and A24, as well as Netflix, Paramount and Sony. Canadian private equity firm Tiny is selling its 60% stake in Letterboxd, which it acquired four years ago in a deal that valued the company at $60 million. Tiny anticipates a hefty return on its investment, valuing the platform at around $300 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tLetterboxd founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow continue to hold a minority stake as well as a say in where the platform ultimately lands. Tiny hired boutique investment bank LionTree to oversee the sale process.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlex Michael, a LionTree senior managing director, raved about Letterboxd at a Financial Times conference in L.A. Thursday as news of the bidding hit, calling it \u201ca phenomenon.\u201d He compared it with Fandango or Rotten Tomatoes (Letterboxd faithful might beg to differ) but \u201ca little different,\u201d drawing movie fans to other fan reviews and to discover new content. <\/p>\n

\n\tLetterboxd attracts 30 million monthly users \u201cwith zero paid marketing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I think is most interesting and relevant to this conversation is that the biggest cohort, the biggest user group, is ages 18 to 24,\u201d Michael said during a conversation about the 2026 box office revival. \u201cIf younger audiences \u2026 are actually consuming and engaged, then maybe this can last.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAaron Sobel, private equity partner at Apollo Global Management, followed with a stat that 20% of 18 to 34-year olds have gone to a movie over the past two weeks, a period with overperforming, wide-release audience draws like Resident Evil and specialty breakouts like Buddy. \u201cThat\u2019s an incredible statistic,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, that percentage declines as people get older, but it\u2019s certainly supportive of what you\u2019re saying\u201d about young skewing Letterboxd.<\/p>\n

\n\tA24 declined comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe New York Times said the company \u201cregularly reviews potential investments, and it\u2019s our policy not to comment on speculation about potential acquisitions or divestitures.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tVersant Media, which owns Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes, kicked the tires at Letterboxd earlier this year but took itself out of the running, Deadline hears.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s another bidder in the mix as well called Intrinsic, a new social benefit corporation launched by Elizabeth Joyce<\/a> that started its campaign with support from indie film stalwart Ted Hope, simpatico with the grass-roots DNA of Letterboxd. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Letterboxd acquisition talks heating up, dealmakers today touted the company as \u201ca phenomenon\u201d and a key to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31614,132789,4927,9,11,10,5489],"class_list":["post-356408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-a24","tag-letterboxd","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}