As the popular movie review website Letterboxd is mounting a sale, the public benefit company Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative is launching a grassroots campaign called Letterboxd4All to encourage the site’s users to pool their money and make a bid of their own, turning Letterboxd into a community-run site.
The campaign comes as Letterboxd’s majority owner, Tiny, is courting bids from Sony, A24 and The New York Times, among others, with a reported valuation of more than $300 million.
Intrinsic says it has already gathered institutional support from investors “capable of writing 7-and-8-figure checks” and is now turning to Letterboxd users for more funding. Interested users can make a minimum $100 investment on the campaign’s WeFunder page or donate smaller amounts through GoFundMe.
“The valuation of Letterboxd reflects the years of creative labor users have contributed to building the platform,” said Elizabeth Joyce, founder of Intrinsic. “Our campaign is a reflection of people’s frustration at seeing value extracted from their communities. Our model offers communities the chance to be the owner, not the product.”
When TheWrap first reported on Intrinsic’s campaign back in August, Joyce said that one of the company’s goals was to maintain the platform as a “point of discoverability” to help indie producers find new audiences, particularly at a time when self-distribution is becoming an increasingly popular option.
“If the future of independent filmmaking is moving in the direction of self-distribution, we have to really think about what opportunities and platforms are out there and whether those incentives are aligned between the investors, the businesses and the filmmakers,” Joyce explained. “We’re really excited to offer new ways for filmmakers to engage with their audiences and for the audiences to be able to find films that they are genuinely, authentically interested in, not just what is being advertised to them in a pay-to-play environment.”
Among the supporters of the campaign are indie producer and former Amazon Studios film co-chief Ted Hope, “Blindspotting” and “Raya and the Last Dragon” director Carlos Lopez Estrada, Art House Convergence executive director Lela Meadow-Conner, and 8Above founder Jon Reiss.
“The streaming business model, pandemic, multiple strikes, and corporate consolidation have led to an unsustainable work environment and an uncertain future for cinema. Community ownership of Letterboxd has the potential to be a lifeline for our industry and offer up an alternative to the corporate conglomerate model,” Hope said.
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