Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative, a company barely dry on its incorporation papers, is making an ambitious bid to acquire Letterboxd, whose private equity firm is considering selling the popular platform for independent film fans.
Social entrepreneur Elizabeth Joyce created Intrinsic as a platform for Community Center, a new collaborative marketing platform for independent filmmakers scheduled to launch this fall. After joining Letterboxd, she pivoted to a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of preparing the proposal. Along with producer Ted Hope and other Substack and social media users, she championed the need to preserve this important platform for discussion and grassroots marketing of independent film, preventing it from being taken over by another private equity firm or large corporation.
More news from Deadline
-
Letterboxd, indie film's secret weapon, has reached 17 million subscribers—here are their top films of 2024.
-
John Carpenter asks, "What the heck is Letterboxd?" after his team debunks the "fake account" claim.
-
In a new feature, Letterboxd will provide showtimes at participating cinemas.
«"Letterboxd is for sale! Oh no! Oh yes! This could mean a tragic end to a glorious beginning, or the beginning of something even greater. And much of the outcome depends on us… if we act quickly," Hope wrote in a Substack post alongside Joyce.
«Never before have we had a community of film lovers like we do at Letterboxd. A united community of true film fans from around the world is an incredible goal. The founders of Letterboxd have done a wonderful job ensuring that Letterboxd has always been community-focused, but now that is in danger of being lost,» said Hope, former co-head of film at Amazon Studios and an advisor to Intrinsic. «What if TechBrosCos confiscates another masterpiece into their private garden… If we don’t take action now, that’s a distinct possibility.».
In late April, Semafor first reported that Canadian investment company Tiny Ltd, which acquired 60% shares in Letterboxed in 2023, planned to sell its stake.
Joyce acknowledged that Intrinsic's move is extremely ambitious, and that "any number of private equity firms could come to the negotiating table with any amount of money they deem necessary." The same applies to strategic buyers.
Comcast subsidiary Versant is eyeing Letterboxd. Tiny has hired investment bank Liontree to assess the market before launching a formal sale.
«"I understand it's a bold goal—to attempt a mission-driven acquisition of a profitable private company from a private equity firm. It's an ambitious undertaking. But I'm encouraged by the work we've done over the last year and the partnerships we've built that have allowed us to really try," she says in an interview with Deadline. "If it doesn't work out, the important discussion remains: we need new business models—both in the film industry and in society at large.".
Some note that Tiny itself is a private equity firm, and its ownership structure hasn't caused any particular problems. Hope and Joyce, however, point out that Tiny's exit could be problematic.
Letterboxd said in a statement that any decision about the company's future will be made jointly by founders Matthew Buchanan and Carl von Randow, the CEO and CTO respectively, who each own 20% shares of the company.
Will the local community support this?
Intrinsic's 60-day campaign on Seed & Spark, a crowdfunding platform for independent film and television, had raised nearly $27,000 by Friday evening. The goal is $100,000 to cover legal fees for preparing documents and filing disclosures with investors, which will lay the groundwork for an acquisition offer. If Intrinsic makes an offer, equity funding will be provided by institutional investors focused on social impact projects—a group Joyce is partnering with to support the Community Center.
«"Crowdfunding has become the fastest way for us to raise the money we need to move forward," she says. "And it's also a kind of proof of concept. Will the community that loves Letterboxd rally around it and want to take it over?"»
Intrinsic is a corporation operating in the public interest. In many ways, it is similar to traditional commercial companies, except that its business plan incorporates social commitments.
For Joyce, this specifically means an exit strategy that doesn't involve raising private equity or holding an IPO. But even investors who share the company's goals want the option to exit.
She describes the ideal scenario: «I need seed capital for the business, so I find a group of people who can write me bigger checks. It’s an unproven project. They don’t know if it’s going to work. They’re just willing to help contribute seed capital. And then, as the business starts to gain traction, I develop people, loyal customers. And once I have enough people who love the business, love the product, love what I do, and want to participate in the ownership and develop it into a cooperative ownership model, then I can use Wefunder [also a nonprofit corporation] to run a crowdfunding campaign to raise equity capital, and we’ll raise money that way. We can use that money to gradually buy back shares from early investors. It’s not a public offering in the sense of an IPO; it’s an invitation to the community to invest.».
Joyce, who lives in Boston, earned a bachelor's degree in human rights policy from New York University and worked at Human Rights Watch. In graduate school, she studied economic sociology, researched alternative business models, and worked in nonprofits and academia. After health problems in 2012, she stepped away from business and founded Yoga By Numbers, which produced yoga mats with target numbers and a grid, as well as a companion app with instructional videos. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she closed the company and began writing screenplays, a longtime passion, and exploring the independent film industry. She is working with producer Susan Stover on developing her third script, a tragicomedy about an Irish-American family in Boston coping with the death of their father.
Noting, like many others, that it's now easier and cheaper to make a film, but harder and more expensive to attract an audience, she began working on a marketing model that would generate enthusiasm for early-stage film projects within a specific community, creating a base of supporters who could help raise funds later. She refined the work of the Community Center at Harvard Law School's Transactional Law Clinic and the Public Entrepreneurship Clinic at Boston College, and last month filed the incorporation documents for Intrinsic.
Letterboxd founders may be involved in the sale.
Buchanan and von Randow, tech entrepreneurs and cinephiles from Auckland, New Zealand, launched Letterboxd in 2011 as a passion project for film, allowing fans and industry insiders to create, track, and share reviews, commentary, and all manner of fun listicles about movies. Activity skyrocketed during the pandemic, and the service now boasts nearly 30 million users, primarily young, who can drive awareness and word-of-mouth for a release. The first marketing partnership was with Neon in the early 2000s for the black-and-white release of the Cannes Film Festival-winning hit. «Parasites» , and many others followed. Independent producers and distributors say its influence cannot be overstated.
New features, such as the video store, include a limited-time (30-day) shelf of films called "Unreleased Gems," which have screened at festivals or one-off screenings but haven't yet received wider distribution. According to the company, when a film is added to the Letterboxd video store, it sees an average 8x increase in engagement on the platform—watchlists, ratings, reviews, likes, and blog posts. For "Unreleased Gems," this figure increases up to 40x. Horror film «It Ends» was added to Neon eight days after the start of the second shelf of "Unreleased Gems" and was released last year.
Buchanan and von Randow also run Cactuslab, a web and mobile design and development studio they founded in 2001. Intrinsic is one of their clients. Last fall, Joyce approached the firm to develop a platform for the Community Center.
In 2023, Tiny's acquisition of Letterboxd, which at the time had surpassed 10 million users, was valued at approximately $50 million. Letterboxd now has three times that number of users, and its value would be significantly higher. When asked about a possible sale, the company declined to comment, stating, "We have nothing specific to report at this time.".
«"As Letterboxd grows, it's only natural that there will be interest in what we do next.".
The Best of Deadline
-
The Good Girl's Guide to Murder Soundtrack: All the Songs You'll Hear in Both Seasons.
-
Premiere dates for new and returning series on broadcast, streaming, and cable channels in 2026
-
The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films of All Time at the World Box Office
Subscribe to the Deadline newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. .