UPDATE: The New York Times Company Is in Exclusive Talks to Buy Letterboxd

Entertainment
Written by Mara Quinn
Rows of empty cinema seats

35 million members, one remaining bidder.

By Mara Quinn | November 7, 2026

This is a follow-up. The new development: the Times is now the sole remaining bidder at a reported $330 million. A24 is out. No deal has been signed. This is what matters now.

This story updates our earlier coverage of the Letterboxd sale process. The development that changes the picture: The New York Times Company has entered exclusive negotiations to acquire the platform, per The New York Times' own reporting on its parent company's discussions, confirmed and extended by TheWrap and Deadline. As of this writing, no agreement has been signed and talks could still fall apart.

The reported price is roughly $330 million. That figure represents approximately 22 times Letterboxd's projected 2026 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of around $15 million, according to two people familiar with the discussions, as cited by the Times. Both numbers are attributed estimates, not audited figures from either company.

The clearest new fact in this update: A24 is out. Deadline confirmed the independent studio is no longer in the running. A field that once included Netflix, Sony, and a Paramount predecessor has narrowed to one buyer. The Times now negotiates exclusively with Tiny, the Canadian holding company that owns 60 percent of Letterboxd, while the platform's co-founders hold the remaining 40 percent.

Under terms reportedly under discussion, co-founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow would stay in charge. Buchanan is CEO; von Randow is CTO; both are based in New Zealand. Letterboxd would run as a standalone platform while plugging into the Times' advertising technology infrastructure. Neither the Times nor LionTree, the boutique investment bank managing the sale, responded to requests for comment from multiple outlets covering the story.

A group called Intrinsic Entertainment, organized as a public benefit corporation, told Deadline it had assembled investors and was several weeks from submitting a competing offer at around $300 million. Exclusive negotiating periods typically bar the seller from engaging other bidders for a defined window. Whether Intrinsic's offer reaches the table under those constraints is not currently known.

Why the Times and Not a Studio

A publisher, not a streaming platform or a production company, sitting in exclusive talks matters for a specific reason. Letterboxd's users rate and review films with no editorial filter. A platform where honest criticism lives inside a company that also finances or distributes films creates a structural tension no studio bidder could easily resolve.

The Times does not make films. That distance from the content being reviewed is part of what made it attractive, by some accounts in prior reporting. It is also consistent with the Times' broader acquisition logic. The Athletic brought sports. Wirecutter handles product recommendations. Wordle gave the company a daily ritual for puzzle players. Each purchase answered the same question: what brings a subscriber back every day for a reason that has nothing to do with the news cycle.

Letterboxd answers that question for film. Its users log movies compulsively. They write short reviews nobody edits. They build watchlists and follow other users whose taste they trust. That behavioral habit is what subscription businesses run on.

The community also skews younger. Letterboxd draws heavily from audiences that cut cable early and let subscriptions lapse just as fast. Pulling those users into a Times bundle, before a competitor does, is the bet. The publisher has stated a goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027. Letterboxd's membership grew 43 percent year-over-year through the second quarter of 2026 and was approaching 35 million by October, per prior TheWrap reporting. That growth rate, with zero paid marketing according to LionTree senior managing director Alex Michael at a recent FT conference, made the platform worth auctioning.

Who Owns the Platform and What They Stand to Receive

Tiny acquired its 60 percent stake in 2023 at a valuation of $50 million to $60 million, per prior reporting. At a $330 million sale price, Tiny's share would be worth roughly $198 million. Buchanan and von Randow each hold 20 percent; each would realize approximately $66 million if the reported terms hold. Whether the deal price covers all outstanding stakes remains unclear from current reporting. Deadline noted that the structure of the offer, specifically whether it includes the founders' shares, has not been confirmed.

Tiny's portfolio focuses on profitable, niche internet businesses. Letterboxd was an outlier there in terms of public recognition. That visibility drove the competitive auction process and, by extension, the price.

What Remains Unsettled

The competitive field made independence a recurring negotiating theme. A24 had promised to leave Letterboxd's business model and community intact. The Times is reportedly considering the same posture, keeping the founders in place and running the platform without structural changes. Those assurances matter to users and, it appears, to the sellers.

One competing bidder, in prior reporting by TheWrap, expressed concern that other potential buyers might put parts of the service behind a paywall. The Times already operates a tiered bundle with games, cooking, sports, and news behind separate subscription layers. How or whether Letterboxd's existing Pro and Patron membership tiers fit that structure is an open question. The reported operating arrangement, standalone with shared ad tech, suggests the Times is not planning an immediate merger with its core product. What happens after any transition period is unknown.

What to Watch Now That Talks Are Exclusive

If this deal closes, four pressure points are worth monitoring.

Pricing. Letterboxd currently offers a free tier alongside paid Pro and Patron memberships. Any integration with the Times bundle would likely reshape that structure, in ways nobody has publicly specified.

Advertising. The reported connection to Times ad technology would probably show up in the product before anything else changes. Letterboxd runs minimal advertising now. The Times runs a large programmatic operation. That gap will narrow in some form.

Editorial independence. Letterboxd's reviews are entirely user-generated. The platform has no house voice and no editorial curation layer. If that changes after a sale, the community that made the platform worth $330 million will respond.

Data. Letterboxd holds years of revealed viewing preferences from tens of millions of users. What a new owner does with that data, and what it discloses to users about those uses, deserves attention the moment any ownership change is announced.

None of those are predictions. They are the specific variables where platform acquisitions historically leave visible marks on the user experience. The talks are ongoing. The sellers are still at the table with one buyer. The number being discussed is a reported estimate, not a signed figure. And the co-founders, who have said they intend to be part of any decision about the platform's future, are reportedly expected to remain in leadership under the terms currently on the table.

The diary still belongs to its users. What happens to it next is the business story now in progress.

Sources

Mara Quinn

Mara Quinn is Reporting from the Uncanny Valley's resident expert on media and the business of technology. She covers platforms, deals, incentives, and the money moving underneath new machines. She lives in Beacon.

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