Letterboxd
Social cataloging service for films
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Letterboxd (/ˈlɛtərbɒkst/ LET-ər-bokst) is an online social cataloging service for film. It was founded by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011. Members can rate and review films, keep track of which ones they have seen in the past and when, make lists of films, showcase their favorites, tag films using text keywords, and interact with other users. It has been described as "Goodreads for movies."[1]
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Screenshot  Screenshot of a film entry page on Letterboxd, illustrating the platform's interface design. | |
Type of site | Social cataloging application for films |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Owner | Tiny (60%) |
| Founders |
|
| URL | letterboxd |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration |
|
| Users | 26 million (as of 2026) |
| Launched | October 2011 |
| Current status | Active |
The website has been majority owned by the Canadian investment company Tiny since 2023[2] and is headquartered in New Zealand. It has over 17 million registered users as of 2024.[3] Although the website is generally limited to films, its leadership intends to add television shows in the future.[4]
History
Development
Seeking to develop a "Goodreads for film," New Zealand web designers Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow launched a private version of the Letterboxd website at the Brooklyn Beta web conference in October 2011.[5][6] The name "Letterboxd" is based on the term letterboxing, the practice of placing black bars on the edges of a screen to preserve a movie's original aspect ratio.[7] Buchanan and von Randow launched an invitation-only beta version in April 2012[8][9] and opened the site to the general public in February 2013.[10] Until March 2020, Letterboxd did not employ any full-time personnel.[11] In September 2023, the company had 16 full-time and 12 part-time employees.[4]
In September 2023, Canadian investment company Tiny acquired a 60% majority stake in Letterboxd, valuing the company at around $50 to $60 million. Buchanan and von Randow continue to lead the company.[12]
Upon its acquisition, Letterboxd concurrently announced that it intended to add television shows to the site.[4] (Due to Letterboxd's reliance on outside vendor The Movie Database for its list of extant films, limited-run series and a small number of recurring series have been loggable on the site for years.[7]) Buchanan acknowledged that the decision to add TV shows has been met with some controversy by the Letterboxd community, but assured users that the introduction of television to the platform will not disrupt the existing user experience.[11]
Growth
In May 2017 (six years after launch), Letterboxd users collectively logged their 100 millionth film; they reached the 1 billion mark on July 19, 2022.[13] In 2024, members wrote 96.4 million reviews, marked 701 million films watched, and made 6.8 million lists.[14] As of March 2025, users have logged over 498 movies at least one million times each (the oldest being Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), and 70 movies at least three million times each.[15][16] In February 2025, Barbie became the first film to be logged five million times on the platform.[17]
Letterboxd's userbase swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its user count rose from 1.8 million in 2020 to 3 million in January 2021,[5] 4.1 million in December of that year,[18] 10 million in September 2023,[4] 11.4 million at the end of 2023,[19] 12 million in February 2024,[20] 15 million four months later in June,[21] and 17 million by the end of 2024.[22] Once movie theaters reopened, arthouse and classic film organizations like the American Cinematheque reported that Letterboxd helped drive younger filmgoers to visit their programs.[23]
Six films have held the title of highest-rated narrative feature on Letterboxd: The Godfather, Parasite, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Come and See, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Harakiri.[24] As of August 2025[update], Harakiri is the current title-holder.[25]
In March 2024, Letterboxd disclosed that it had suffered a data breach the previous February via a compromised staff account. The company said the breaching party had accessed "significantly less than 1% of all accounts."[26][27]
Features
General features
Anyone can read content on the site. However, users who want to participate must create a Letterboxd account.
All members can rate films on a scale of one to five stars (with half-stars also allowed), review films, and tag them with relevant keywords. Members may also list their four favorite films, maintain lists of films they have watched or want to watch, and interact with other members. A follower model enables members to follow and get updates about the activity of others on the site. Lists can be made public, shared with specific users, or kept private.[28]
Letterboxd is available as a mobile app for Android and iOS.[29][30]
Paid membership features
Since opening to the public in February 2013, Letterboxd has offered a tiered membership structure, with both free and paid memberships.[31] Paid subscribers can access a broader range of features, including individual user data (such as hours spent watching films, favorite directors, and types of ratings given)[32] and a tool that identifies whether a film is available on a streaming service to which the user has a subscription.[33]
In September 2020, Letterboxd announced a new "HQ" membership type for film-related organizations, such as movie theaters, studios, festivals, and podcasts.[34] HQ members can post news stories, link to external websites, and access web analytics.[35]
Film data
All film-related metadata used on the website is supplied by The Movie Database (TMDb), an open source database.[36] In September 2019, the site partnered with JustWatch to display online viewing options for films.[37] In March 2022, the site partnered with Nanocrowd to show "nanogenres" and recommendations for similar films to users.[38][39] In December 2023, Letterboxd partnered with the aggregator Assemble to launch a feature identifying showtimes and links to ticketing websites for movies that were currently in theaters.[40] The feature applies to movie theaters in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.[41]
Letterboxd Video Store
On November 19, 2025, Letterboxd announced it would be launching a new service feature, "Letterboxd Video Store", a digital film rental platform for curated film selections, including unreleased independent films without distribution, restorations, and "long-watchlisted titles" finally made available. This service would launch in 23 countries where Letterboxd is available (the US, Canada, the UK, and others), with pricing and availability varying by film and by country.[42][43][44] On December 8, 2025, the service was announced to be launching on December 10, 2025, and the first premiere exclusive films on the platform were revealed, including It Ends, Sore: Wife from the Future, Kennedy, and The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.[45][46] The service currently maintains a rotating collection of titles, including Thunder Road, Monos, Castration Movie, To a Land Unknown, Tiger on the Beat, Poison, Norte, the End of History, Before We Vanish, and Hundreds of Beavers, as well as selections chosen by guest artists, with the first in January 2026 being a series of French New Wave classics curated by Richard Linklater to promote his film Nouvelle Vague.
Reputation
The site has a reputation for attracting cinephiles and members of Film Twitter.[5][47] An internal survey conducted in 2022 showed that Letterboxd users, on average, watched more movies and spent more money on movies than general moviegoers.[48] The New York Times wrote, "What rises to the top of the site's page for most popular reviews ranges wildly: there are obscure memes, diaristic essays and sprawling screeds packed with pseudo-academic jargon", adding, "the lack of rules or structure can also lead to some interesting, unconventional criticism, and offers a platform to voices that might otherwise not be heard."[5] The site has been praised for its comparative and competitive pressure as well as its role in facilitating connections centered on shared interests; fostering exploration across cinema genres and eras; challenging gatekeeping in the film community; and connecting like-minded people within digital communities. Conversely, it has been criticized for gamifying the act of watching films and boosting sardonic one-line reviews over more in-depth assessments.[49][50][51] Film critic Scott Tobias called Letterboxd "the safest space for film discussion we've got."[32]
In recent years, several notable members of the film industry have joined the site. When actress Iman Vellani was cast as Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel, fans quickly found her Letterboxd account[52] and some of her reviews went viral, particularly her review of Captain Marvel.[53] Director Martin Scorsese opened a Letterboxd account in October 2023 and quickly became the most-followed user on the site.[54]
Industry figures on Letterboxd
Other filmmakers and actors have actively used Letterboxd, including:
- Demi Adejuyigbe[55]
- Allan Arkush[56]
- Roger Avary[57]
- Sean Baker[58]
- Jim Beaver[59]
- Simon Barrett[60]
- Charli XCX[61]
- Aneesh Chaganty[62]
- Rob Coleman[63]
- Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts[64]
- Barbara Crampton[65]
- Jim Cummings[66]
- Scott Derrickson[67]
- Brian Duffield[68]
- Ayo Edebiri[69]
- Elsie Fisher[70]
- Mike Flanagan[71]
- Jared Gilman[72]
- Daniel Goldhaber[73]
- Dylan Gelula[74]
- McKenna Grace[75]
- Chad Hartigan[76]
- Paul Walter Hauser[77]
- Jordan Horowitz[78]
- Anurag Kashyap[79]
- Owen Kline[80]
- Chandler Levack[81]
- Ashley Liao[82]
- Joe Lynch[83]
- Kyle MacLachlan[84]
- Jaeden Martell[85]
- Christopher McQuarrie[86]
- Max Minghella[87]
- Dacre Montgomery[88]
- Hari Nef[89]
- Griffin Newman[90]
- Wyatt Oleff[91]
- Josh Ruben[92]
- Rachel Sennott[93]
- Sarah Sherman[94]
- Oren Soffer[95]
- Adam Wingard[96]
- Dafne Keen[97]
- Rowan Blanchard[98]
- Michael Williams[99]
- Alex Winter[100]
- Ivy Wolk[101]
- Edgar Wright[102]
In addition, filmmakers like Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola,[103] Michael Mann,[104] and Rian Johnson,[105][106] as well as fictional film character Paddington Bear,[107] have created Letterboxd profiles to post their lists of recommended films.
Joining individual filmmakers, a number of film-related organizations and companies have established an official presence on Letterboxd. This includes film distributors such as Paramount Pictures,[108] Sony Pictures,[109] Lionsgate,[110] NEON,[111] and The Criterion Collection,[112] as well as the streaming service MUBI,[113] prominent film festival organizers like the Cannes Film Festival,[114] and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which announced a formal partnership with the platform in 2023.[115][116] These accounts often share curated film lists and news. Letterboxd's editorial team also frequently interviews Hollywood celebrities about their four favorite films, based on the Letterboxd feature that allows users to publicly display their own favorite movies on their user profiles.[117][118][119] Letterboxd's YouTube channel houses over 500 videos featuring celebrities like Jack Lowden, Bowen Yang, Scott Speedman, Auli’i Cravalho, Jenny Slate, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, and others sharing their four favorite films.[120][121]
In recent years, several celebrities' private Letterboxd accounts were exposed and scrutinized online. Fran Hoepfner of Vulture criticized the practice of publicizing such accounts, arguing that it can make reviews feel sponsored or inauthentic, and dubbed it "boxxeding" (a portmanteau of "Letterboxd" and "doxxing"). Confirmed accounts include Jack Harlow,[122] Ed Sheeran, Wim Wenders, Mason Thames, Iman Vellani,[123] Lukas Gage, and Kid Cudi,[124] while those of Margot Robbie and Hudson Williams were alleged.[125]
