Netflix in Talks to Buy Letterboxd: Report
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- Letterboxd's owners have been shopping the film-review social network to potential buyers in recent months, with investment bank LionTree floating a $250 million valuation, per Puck.
- Netflix is among the parties in early talks, alongside Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Skydance, RedBird Capital Partners, private-equity giant TPG, and Alexis Ohanian's VC firm Seven Seven Six.
- Canadian holding company Tiny acquired a 60% stake in Letterboxd in 2023 at a $50–60 million valuation, while co-founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow retain the remaining 40%.
- Versant Media, spun out from Comcast/NBCUniversal earlier this year, held talks about acquiring Letterboxd as recently as April, per Semafor.
- Letterboxd surpassed 30 million members globally as of June 2026, adding roughly 10 million in the past year, and recently launched an online video-rental service.
- Critics flagged potential conflict-of-interest concerns, pointing to Rotten Tomatoes' years under NBCUniversal as a cautionary example of a studio-owned ratings platform.
Why it matters: A $250 million sale would mark roughly a 4x markup on Tiny's 2023 valuation, and if Netflix, Sony, or Paramount ultimately closes the deal, Letterboxd's independent film-rating function faces the same criticism NBCUniversal attracted over Rotten Tomatoes — undermining the user trust that fueled its growth from 20 million to 30 million members in a single year.
