Crowdfunding campaign hopes to save Letterboxd from venture capitalists

The owner of Letterboxd is considering selling the popular movie-rating website, so Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to help fund an acquisition.

In April, Semafor reported that Tiny, which acquired a majority stake in Letterboxd in 2023, was exploring a sale. While companies like Versant and The Ankler were reportedly interested, those behind Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative believe that another private equity or corporate acquisition could cause Letterboxd to be “optimized and slowly hollowed out until it becomes something else,” according to its Seed & Spark campaign page.

It ultimately wants to preserve Letterboxd as “the top rung of the filmmaking ladder — the place where films that have managed to get made, marketed, and released could connect to their audiences.”

As of the time of publication, the Seed & Spark campaign has raised $128,569 in its first five days, surpassing the $100,000 crowdfunding goal it set at the start. Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative says that the first $100,000 will be used to cover legal and due diligence fees. The additional funds now being raised will go toward the investment in an offer to buy Letterboxd. The campaign will remain active for over 54 more days.

While Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative is a relatively new, unproven public-benefit corporation, it’s still admirable to see it attempt to preserve the spirit of Letterboxd. Even though this wouldn’t be as big as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, we’ve seen how messy those larger-scale mergers can get. That’s definitely not a fate that I’d want for Letterboxd.

As for Tiny’s perspective on this effort, a spokesperson told Deadline, “There’s nothing specific for us to share at this time. As Letterboxd has grown, it’s natural there will be interest in what we do next.” As such, it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out and what company ends up owning Letterboxd when all is said and done.