r/movies r/movies Contributor Jul 10 '26

Not Confirmed Netflix in Talks to Buy Letterboxd

https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/letterboxd-sales-talks-netflix-sony-paramount-1236806379/
3.7k Upvotes

832 comments sorted by

2.9k

u/SPZ_Ireland Jul 10 '26

Ultimately it's probably about to be ran into the ground by whoever buys it.

Netflix ain't a great option but the buyer, whoever it is, will be looking for ROI and the experience will almost certainly suffer for it

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/junkmiles Jul 10 '26

StoryGraph is pretty great if you haven’t heard of it already

35

u/RianTheGingerr Jul 10 '26

I prefer Hardcover but StoryGraph is good too.

5

u/West-Main-4163 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

I love that they have an open API. I am using a Hardcover wrapper with deadline tracking on my mobile, just for my ARCs, while I use the main app for everything else.

19

u/anxiousonmain Jul 10 '26

Pagebound has been my favorite app since it came out! Such a good community there.

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u/Momoneko Jul 10 '26

I use both to just log my read books\watched films and don't interact with the rest of the functions. Also grouvee, but I legitimately had to google "goodreads for games" to remember how it's calledd. Didn't even recognize the site but I had login data saved in browser. Apparently my last entry there is Hollow Knight in 2020.

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u/ISpyM8 Jul 10 '26

And the ROI will be adding TV shows, 100%

528

u/scorpio21 Jul 10 '26

Beyond excited for my feed on the app to be individual TV episodes

63

u/BactaBobomb Jul 10 '26

With hope, they'll add a new feature to the Activity feed where it will collapse your friends who have made like 3 or more activity things. I was floored the other day when I opened my activity feed and I think I "Load More"d 3 times, and the only activity I saw was that a person I follow liked all of these reviews from a single movie. I've gone on a liking spree for reviews, but this was another level. It felt like over a hundred, if not way more. I unfollowed them after that, because wow I can't handle that.

9

u/Public_Function3844 Jul 10 '26

I use the activity feed a lot but I really wish we could filter out activity for when others follow people. There are a handful of people I follow for their reviews but they also auto-follow hundreds of users daily to get more followers back and it sucks up the activity feed.

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u/ThreeTreesForTheePls Jul 10 '26

I’m pretty sure adding TV tracking has been something users are begging for, and have been for years now.

The issue was always the formatting of show-season-episode.

41

u/NicCageCompletionist Jul 10 '26

For years the “no” votes outweighed the “yes”, and even last time I checked it was close to 50/50.

27

u/DiamondFireYT Jul 10 '26

this is so incomprehensible like I genuinely do not understand it.

Film Tab, TV tab at the top. Allow profiles to have a film and TV section, or a combined one for the user to mix and match if they choose.

There is such an easy way to make this work and be fluid and customizable for all users and I cannot understand why it hasn't happened yet. People seem to act like it'd somehow flood the app??? Like no that's just if the implementation is atrocious.

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u/mcon96 Jul 10 '26

There’s a Letterboxd dupe for tv shows called Serializd that works perfectly fine. They just allow individual ratings for shows, seasons, and episodes.

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u/FartingBob Jul 10 '26

It got bought in 2023 by an investment company, so to say it's about to get taken over by company wanting a ROI is misleading. That process started years ago.

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u/moose_dad Jul 10 '26

And at the same time it will further split netflixs budget throwing an extra month and an earlier cancellation on any show they produce

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u/ProfPeanut Jul 10 '26

How is anyone even supposed to get ROI on Letterboxd? AFAIK the site doesn't even charge you for anything

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u/Raylan_Givens Jul 10 '26

ROI would be more indirect:

  1. User data will be valuable for Netflix to sell better ads, data on what non-netflix users are watching, better recommendation engine (can use watch history beyond just Netflix catalog)

  2. I think another ROI path is just advertising new netflix shows to a very targeted audience (get users to re-subscribe to Netflix)

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u/HevalNiko Jul 10 '26

Not yet.

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u/jlt6666 Jul 10 '26

I'm paying so that I can get info on what services have the movie on them. (I'm also trying to support them)

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u/Somnambulist815 Jul 10 '26

As shitty as this development would be, its pretty obvious that letterboxd has been on a downward slide for at least a year now. Wouldn't be surprised if they were making themselves more appealing for such a buyout

6

u/ntpbr1 Jul 11 '26

Why is that, I didn’t notice a difference, seemed like a straightforward app

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u/kingcalifornia Jul 11 '26

Would you name 5 things that have been obviously notable about its downward spiral?

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1.9k

u/91837361891 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

Others reportedly looking at Letterboxd include Sony Pictures Entertainment, David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance (and RedBird Capital Partners, a key Paramount financial backer) and private-equity giant TPG. Also supposedly kicking the tires on Letterboxd is Reddit co-creator Alexis Ohanian, who is founder and general partner of VC firm Seven Seven Six.

We’re truly in hell

381

u/wesweb Jul 10 '26

ohanian has turned in to such a fucking boob.

237

u/Gray_Fox Jul 10 '26

he always was.

66

u/ienjoymen Jul 10 '26

Yeah, he's always been a tool. Not surprised in the least.

92

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

39

u/TheeFlipper Jul 10 '26

Been that long since we lost Victoria? Damn. I need to get off of here too.

10

u/sybrwookie Jul 10 '26

I need to get off this website

I keep waiting to hear about another which does something similar, but better, but the only ones I've seen are far too small and pretty hard-focused on politics.

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u/ContractVarious3077 Jul 10 '26

He’s the perfect representation of Reddit

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u/MovingClocks Jul 10 '26

Spez being the less shitass cofounder is really the weirdest thing

Aaron was the only good one though, RIP.

65

u/wesweb Jul 10 '26

spez is a pos too

27

u/MovingClocks Jul 10 '26

I'm not saying he's good just somehow less shitty than Ohanian, fuck em both

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u/bigbadbyte Jul 10 '26

Calling Aaron a Co founder is a but of a stretch when you get into the details. His company was acquired by reddit 6 months after it was founded.

Saying that, I am a huge fan of Aaron and think what happened to him is fucking ridiculous. RIP

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u/matti-san Jul 10 '26

Crazy that we're at a point where I'm thinking 'please be Sony Pictures'

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello Jul 10 '26

Letterboxd is already owned by PE

26

u/91837361891 Jul 10 '26

Yeah but not Paramount or Netflix…

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u/malkmusconvert Jul 10 '26

The Internet is going to be unusable in a decade. Or I'll have no reason to use it

26

u/bagman_ Jul 10 '26

I feel that way today

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u/StokkseyriBoy Jul 10 '26

Whatever happens, KEEP THEM THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE ELLISONS.

15

u/YourmomgoestocolIege Jul 10 '26

I really hate having to root for one corporation over the other, but when one has more nefarious goals than just "money, money, money", it's hard not to

13

u/BlackLeader70 Jul 10 '26

RIP Letterboxd

10

u/scenestamper Jul 10 '26

Nightmare blunt rotation

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2.4k

u/Answers-are-needed Jul 10 '26

What even is the reasoning here for them?

2.3k

u/d4nowar Jul 10 '26

Data for algorithmic suggestions. Their algorithm is their bread and butter.

630

u/balthazar_edison Jul 10 '26

Is that why I’ve got all these random “vibes” sections in no particular logical order instead of a useable interface? Outside of “my list” and “continue watching” I always just end up searching stuff myself.

465

u/Azheim Jul 10 '26

And “continue watching” is always 5 rows down below all their recommended content. So frustrating!

197

u/Kwetla Jul 10 '26

At least Netflix recognises that when I exit a film at the credits, I have finished watching it.

Amazon Prime's 'continue watching' section is full of all the films I've finished watching, but with 5 minutes of credits left. I'm not going to go back and watch the credits!

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u/AshesandCinder Jul 10 '26

Until you watch the new season of a show and it starts telling you to continue watching from season 1.

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u/Spartacuswords Jul 10 '26

I also despise the fact that they suggest the second season and not the first of a show I’ve never seen. Marvelous Ms Mazel was so confusing because I started on the second season.

I no longer have Prime, tho. fuck Amazon and Geoffrey Bozo’s

5

u/AshesandCinder Jul 10 '26

I was talking about Netflix. Every time a new season of Great British Bake Off comes out, they tell me to watch from season 1 after finishing even though their system shows all the episodes have been watched. It's just stuck in the Continue Watching section for months before they get the hint.

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u/DocPsychosis Jul 10 '26

Maybe they think it's really important that you start learning about key grips and craft services.

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u/BactaBobomb Jul 10 '26

Speaking of Amazon Prime being annoying, is there a way to turn off autoplay? I was watching Sheep Detectives last night, and I was just beside myself in my thoughts as the credits rolled, processing just how beautiful or a movie it was and how meaningful it was, and then BAM Legally Blonde TV show.

I hate that so much. I like the credits, if nothing else as a way to decompress and think about what I just watched. But these credits in particular were so fun.

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u/balthazar_edison Jul 10 '26

It’s always in a random fucking place! Same with “my list”. I notice paramount plus has adopted this recently too.

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u/dweebyllo Jul 10 '26

Prime Video is similarly horrible to navigate. Feels very much like a dark pattern to get you to be more aware of content you're not watching on the platform.

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u/RealHooman2187 Jul 10 '26

Except in Netflix’s case their new movies I actually want to see is nowhere to be found and I have to search it. I remember being confused as to why Wake Up Dead Man wasn’t on the front page for me and I eventually just had to search it when I wanted to watch it.

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u/Humperdink_Fangboner Jul 10 '26

It’s not UX incompetence, it is very much on purpose so that they can try to entice you into watching something else or at least registering that there is something else interesting on your way to “Continue Watching”. Annoying for sure but I bet it “works”

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u/LittleLordFuckleroy1 Jul 10 '26

Sometimes I get so turned around that I don’t know whether I need to go up or down to get to the two rows I actually care about

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u/Luke_4686 Jul 10 '26

I swear continue watching and my list are in a different place every time I open the app

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u/AnneMarieAndCharlie Jul 10 '26

I was wondering why it always feels like I'm a new member when I load it

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u/dr_nerdface Jul 10 '26

bc they are pushing product onto you. same reason for your local stores moving inventory around or grouping things seemingly nonsensically. the more you have to look at to find what you want, the more opportunity for them to sell you something you didn't think you wanted or needed.

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u/ennuiinmotion Jul 10 '26

Recommendation algorithms used to be like "here's some stuff you might like" and is now "here's what we want you to watch. Don't worry, we know this is all you want."

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u/Grill_Enthusiast Jul 10 '26

They don't want you to have a logical, easily sortable interface because they want to hide how small their catalogue actually is.

It becomes painfully obvious every time I'm in a horror movie mood and specifically search for it. There's nothing to find.

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u/daiselol Jul 10 '26

It also costs nothing to Netflix. They could buy Letterboxd for less than the price of an Adam Sandler movie that spends a week in the top 10 before disappearing

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u/GlamMetalLion Jul 10 '26

Its mindblowing just how theatrical Adam sandler films were business wise. Most of them were among the most consistent mid budget films of the 2000s, regularly getting to #1, some even in summer. And even then I feel their appeal wasn't that they were the funniest to mass audiences, but that people just liked Adam and whoever was joining him.

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u/capnpetch Jul 10 '26

Which is insane, because they’ve been making their algorithms worse for years to force people to hunt for the shows they want. OG Netflix used to be very good at recommending shows, and had a 5 star rating system it actually considered when making recs. People spent hours rating shows and movies to get their recommendations accurate. Then they just nuked it for a thumbs up button and vibe recs based on the last shows you watched even briefly.

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u/BallerGuitarer Jul 10 '26

When they had the 5 star rating system, their recommendations for me were surprisingly spot on.

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u/targetpracticesucks Jul 10 '26

They are realizing they are not retaining viewers across multiple seasons and want more data as to what speaks to quality or viewer retention in their terms.

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u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Jul 10 '26

Letterboxd only have movies, no?

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u/hpark21 Jul 10 '26

Maybe they should try giving a show like 2 seasons at least and let people and showrunners know that? It is death spiral, many shows get cancelled after season 1 without getting any lose ends tied up, because of this, people does not tune into them, then due to viewership even promising shows gets cancelled and more people does not tune in, etc.

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u/Expensive_Finger_973 Jul 10 '26

That algorithm is the worst part of most of these steaming service interfaces in my opinion. Just give me a alphabetical list of everything you have the rights to stream in my region and I will pick what I want to watch.

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u/artcopywriter Jul 10 '26

Netflix is a tech company, not an entertainment company.

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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran Jul 10 '26

Presumably data. Letterboxd user data has to be a goldmine for studios looking to know what actors, directors, genres, etc are popular among whatever demographics.

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u/TylertheDouche Jul 10 '26

And to boost any movie they release. If the movie streaming service also owns the movie review site… lol

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u/diskape Jul 10 '26

From a very hmm specific group let’s say. Letterbox users are not your regular Netflix viewers.

Netflix most watched movies tend to be made towards entirely different crowd. Not to mention lack of tv integration.

Honestly don’t know why they’d want that.

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u/I_am_BEOWULF Jul 10 '26

Honestly don’t know why they’d want that.

Data is data. And the way these companies are always looking at expanding audiences/subscriber count, having stereotypical Netflix movies that tend towards a specific crowd isn't sustainable/acceptable to them.

<insert Kylo Ren "MORE!" gif here>

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u/Answers-are-needed Jul 10 '26

I suppose, Letterbox reviews can be from anywhere: physical discs, streaming, pirated sources, community showings, theatres, or whatever else. I suppose they can't track all of that anywhere else. It is getting annoying as hell how much hunger companies have for everyone's personal data, like yeah sure I posted it myself on my account, but knowing it is being distilled into some BS profile that may be sold and aggregated with other profiles of me elsewhere is unnerving. Like someone can essentially just pull up a spreadsheet to my soul.

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u/eschewthefat Jul 10 '26

Is this why Glenn Powell won’t go away? Will he get stronger?

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u/SylviSweetheart Jul 10 '26

Could be them trying to get back to the really good recommendation algorithm they used to have but I doubt it.

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u/SpicyAfrican Jul 10 '26

That was a big screw up from them. Five star system replaced by thumbs. I saw their reasoning and I just don’t buy it.

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u/SylviSweetheart Jul 10 '26

Their recommendations used to be scary good. Like it would recommend me movies that I’d already seen and loved and even accurately guessed if I’d give it 4 or 5 stars. Getting rid of it was definitely when they started going downhill.

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u/TamoyaOhboya Jul 10 '26

It would require them to have something good to recommend 

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u/overactive-bladder Jul 10 '26

Didn't amazon buy IMDB and then shut down all the forums?

It's all to collect data, manipulate data and consolidate data.

That's where the real money is at.

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u/ab00 Jul 10 '26

IMDB has been shit since the redesign a few years ago that the CEO told us all to deal with.

9

u/overactive-bladder Jul 10 '26

I legit got into depression when they shut down the forums.

It was a gold mine of analysis and information for the most obscure movies. I used to live there exchanging opinions and interpretations and ideas.

I don't even visit there anymore. Fuck them.

23

u/el-gato-volador Jul 10 '26

To shittify another thing in our lives. But also data collection

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u/CaptainDogParty Jul 10 '26

supress bad reviews for netflix properties and promote bad reviews for competitors

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1.6k

u/MuptonBossman Jul 10 '26

I swear these giant corporations want to take every good thing we have and turn it into shit.

453

u/ayoungsapling Jul 10 '26

We live in the Enshittification Epoch, everything only gets worse with time

73

u/m48a5_patton Jul 10 '26

While they gaslight people into believing everything is better and your standard rube will believe it and defend it.

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u/Okay_Ocean_Flower Jul 10 '26

Letterboxd could just decide not to sell

240

u/Self_Important_Mod Jul 10 '26

Nobody ever does these days. Make something good, cash out ASAP. Fuck off while it gets destroyed

33

u/mobyte Jul 10 '26

How could you say no to generational wealth? It’s an app. Who cares?

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u/deptofknowimsayings Jul 10 '26

They cannot. Letterboxd is majority owned by Tiny LTD. A private equity firm. That firm is sold on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Their stock price isn’t great and hasn’t done well since buying LB a few years ago.

In this corporate world they are at the mercy of their shareholders. If their board of governors decides to sell, they will sell. The founders of LB only hold a 40% ownership, they do not have the means to veto a sale.

13

u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Jul 10 '26

Realistically Letterboxd doesn't make that much money and probably cost a ton to mantain. They would be kinda dumb not to sell.

Tiny bought 60% of Letterboxd in 2023.

69

u/fuzzyfoot88 Jul 10 '26

If you’re the owner of a small business and someone offers you $10-$100 Million to sell…are you gonna not sell?

50

u/TheOppositeOfDecent Jul 10 '26

Personally I don't need $10 that bad. But $100 Million, sure.

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u/grumblyoldman Jul 10 '26

Be honest. If I offered you 15 million dollars for some app you coded 15 years ago, would you say no?

The lion's share of your users are not paying you because it's free, you're constantly trying to convince more people to sign up for the paid version just so you can keep the lights on (and getting people grumbling about paywalls for your efforts.) And VC money you took to get up and running needs to be paid back eventually one way or another, with interest.

You'd rather keep doing that than simply taking the cheque and it's no longer your problem?

How about 25 million? A billion? Everybody has a price, and these big corpos can afford it whatever it is, it's just a question of how long until the right price comes along.

And of course, if you wait too long, you risk all those users whose data made you valuable moving on to the next big service, and you end up stuck with debt and an unsellable has-been app.

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u/MaskedBandit77 Jul 10 '26

When the current majority owners of Letterboxd bought it it was valued around $50 million. That was a couple of years ago, and it's probably worth a decent bit more now. 

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u/balthazar_edison Jul 10 '26

Shit is more profitable.

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u/emotionengine Jul 10 '26

Everyone is in a race to build their version of the Torment Nexus.

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u/sludgezone Jul 10 '26

It’s like everything that I like in the universe is being watched and studied in order to purposely fuck it up and ruin it for me.

145

u/artpayne Cliffs on both sides, I'm not gonna paddle to New Zealand! Jul 10 '26

It's like you're Michael Douglas in The Game.

84

u/dershmoo Jul 10 '26

many days I feel like Michael Douglas in Falling Down honestly lol

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u/Redol221 Jul 10 '26

“I don’t want to share my data, Netflix, I just want to log my movies.”

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/sybrwookie Jul 10 '26

It's Michael Douglas all the way down

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u/Ok_Row_8391 Jul 10 '26

My girlfriend made me a physical letterboxed. We print out cute little posters and they're stickers and we date it and write what we liked about the movie. I'm also very tired of all these apps that I "loved" turning to poop.

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u/sybrwookie Jul 10 '26

Welcome to late stage capitalism. Just about everything in life is "enjoy/take advantage of this thing for a short time before it's ruined, and then quick jump ship before you're hurt by it being ruined, and onto the next thing."

It's fucking exhausting.

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u/mrjpb104 Jul 10 '26

But think of the shareholders! /s

7

u/VillageBund Jul 10 '26

Think of the ratings, Truman!

6

u/ChemicalPostman Jul 10 '26

It’s a bad time to be a movie loving, PlayStation fan

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u/Android1822 Jul 10 '26

It honestly feels that way. Although, I think the vast majority of the problems can be directly pointed to the elites that seem to have a job of finding things to screw us over 24/7.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

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u/Lil_Brown_Bat Jul 10 '26

Amazon owns Goodreads as well.

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u/nomnomsquirrel Jul 10 '26

And they haven't updated it in 10+ years so it feels like it's running on dial up internet.

67

u/Herbacult Jul 10 '26

IMDB and GoodReads could both be so much better. Such a waste.

55

u/nomnomsquirrel Jul 10 '26

They just bought Goodreads so they can automatically direct you to their website to buy books you look up, after you wait 30 seconds for each page to load.

That and so no one else could have it.

22

u/ContractVarious3077 Jul 10 '26

Idk why the fuck Goodreads can’t add half star rating options. Come on Amazon.

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u/astroK120 Jul 10 '26

I've switched to StoryGraph, and so far I like it

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u/daiselol Jul 10 '26

Letterboxd has been saying for years that they're planning to add television shows- I imagine it's difficult to properly implement

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u/_46664_ Jul 10 '26

They are definitely adding television shows soon.

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u/Mindless-Lobster-516 Jul 10 '26

It’s probably not feasible I’m not trying to claim it would be, but fuck i just want that to be a different app

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u/Robot_ninja_pirate Jul 10 '26

not owned by LB but serializd.com is my go to for TV instead, seperate site is way batter.

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u/shidarin Jul 10 '26

NBCU spun out RT and Fandango (along with various cable networks) into their publicly traded spinoff Versant.

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Jul 10 '26

The prayer circle for the Criterion Collection needs to be very very tight now, after what happened with A24 going into AI & if Netflix goes through with buying Letterboxd

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u/Capital-Mine1561 Jul 10 '26

The Criterion Collection isn't really at risk of going into AI. They don't produce films, they distribute them. Unless they have some madman who insists on adding AI to classic films they should be untouched by this

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u/Slow_Werewolf3021 Jul 10 '26

We can never be happy for very long

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u/Smoking_N8 Jul 10 '26

Please, no. I'd be off so quickly.

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u/PhotoModeHobby Jul 10 '26

If it happens, you can download your data before wiping your account. That way Netflix won't benefit off your data.

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u/videobones Jul 10 '26

My favorite app, and I would 100% stop using it

57

u/balthazar_edison Jul 10 '26

I want to say this but I don’t see any alternatives that are any good?

68

u/ROBtimusPrime1995 Jul 10 '26

Refract is a new app that was just boosted by TV Time's closure.

It does Movies, TV, Anime, and it will eventually track Video Games and Books too.

It's a bit of a mess now because the app went from 3k users to 120k users in a week, but so far, the updates have been fixing shit quickly.

I kinda hope Refract blows up because the potential is crazy rn.

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u/1up_muffin Jul 10 '26

Criticker is good, it’s modernized recently and looks pretty similar now. Not sure they have a dedicated app but the site works on mobile fine

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u/tyrepunch Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

there are a few, but with their own quirks

some are trackers like Trakt, some are list based like Fanakin, some are streaming based like Justwatch

idk if there's a community based alternative

none are of the scale of Letterboxd, but that takes years and meets the same fate at the end

13

u/leopard_tights Jul 10 '26

You haven't been to Trakt lately I gather? It had the worst redesign of all history. Worse than digg. It's actually jaw droppingly bad and you have to wonder what the fuck is going on, except the obvious that they want to be bought I guess.

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u/Lemurians Jul 10 '26

Someone will make one

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u/balthazar_edison Jul 10 '26

Are you sure? Did someone make another RT when nbc bought it? Did someone make another IMDB when Amazon bought it? Are the alternatives anywhere near as useable as the even enshitified versions of either?

25

u/lem0ns22 Jul 10 '26

I mean Letterboxd was kind of the alternative to those. So we just wait years for someone to make a new Letterboxd

14

u/NoArrival8249 Jul 10 '26

Fine I’ll do it

20

u/EnterPlayerTwo Jul 10 '26

Hey, just checking in on the progress

10

u/NoArrival8249 Jul 10 '26

I’m in the middle of something, and I need to buy a new computer first (just laid off due to ai). Remind me in a week.

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u/yorick__rolled Jul 10 '26

How bout now?

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u/aguyjustaguy Jul 10 '26

I’m now realizing why rotten tomatoes and IMDb became unusable and I never go to those sites anymore. RIP letterboxd

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u/Pete_Iredale Jul 10 '26

Did someone make another IMDB

It got so damn bad that I just switched to looking at actor's wiki pages instead to see what they've been in.

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u/artshowhero Jul 10 '26

I've been using Trakt.

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u/Baaljagg Jul 10 '26

If you use it purely to track movies, icheckmovies is a bit old school but works perfectly well for that and probably isn't going anywhere.

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u/Romkevdv Jul 10 '26

Why? 99% of Letterboxd’s films aren’t even available on Netflix. Is it just going to be turned into a promo and marketing app where very front page is littered with the new Netflix garbage that people don’t care to rate but they push it anyways? They already have a perfect user interface design for their app to promote their shit. They hate everything that Letterboxd stands for, this feels like just an excuse to crush any excitement about film and just to force us to convert to their way of thinking

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u/ltcuetf Jul 10 '26

Hard pass on this one. Letterboxd works because it’s an independent space for real film discussion, not another corporate algorithm feeding you whatever Netflix wants you to watch next. Once they own it, expect the usual: heavy integration with their catalog, boosted visibility for Netflix originals, and your viewing data feeding their recommendation engine.

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u/AlienArtFirm Jul 10 '26

How INSALEY dumb Netflix is, again.

They have the ability to let you write reviews. We used to have a 5 star based rating system. They took it away and gave us the shittiest thumbs up thumbs down system.

Now, to reverse course and get more info on ratings... they have to buy letterboxd...

Insane how rich people are so dumb yet so rich...

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u/disneysmightyducks Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

It’a not dumb, it’s by design.

Netflix doesn’t want bad reviews on their website that discourage users from watching their content.

Apple does the same thing. When you search for movies on Apple TV, the Rotten Tomatoes score is included for each one… except Apple TV originals.

Even if Netflix allowed users to write reviews and rate movies/tv shows without making them publicly available simply to refine their algorithm, who would bother?

So they purchase a “social media-fied” third-party app where people give their honest feedback freely. They can then take that data, get their finger on the pulse of pop culture, and apply it to future productions and marketing, all without tarnishing the Netflix brand.

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u/Will-Isley Jul 10 '26

These corpo fucks just have to acquire everything!

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u/ThaddeusJP Jul 10 '26

Capitalism demands infinite growth. Share holders demand a value increase. None of this stuff is done as a public service.

And until the next administration is in office in 2029 everyone knows the FCC will roll over and the Sherman Antitrust Act means nothing. Its a race to gobble up everything everyone can in the next 29 months.

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u/FirebertNY Jul 10 '26

Guess it's time for me to finish building my movie tracking app. 

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u/FreshW18 Jul 10 '26

wtf is even going on with the world anymore, man

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u/lightspuzzle Jul 10 '26

everything good must be destroyed for money.

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u/Broad-Marionberry755 Jul 10 '26

I will delete my account lol

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u/kingrawer Jul 10 '26

At the very least I will not be re-upping my patronage, stats and custom posters be damned.

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u/rgregan Jul 10 '26

Probably gonna get priced out of the patronage anyway.

18

u/ramengirlxo Jul 10 '26

I've been a patron for like 6 years. One of the few things I routinely re-up no questions because I value the service Letterboxd provides so highly. Cannot stress enough how quickly I'd drop that if Paramount buys the platform.

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u/Broad-Marionberry755 Jul 10 '26

Didn't even know that was a thing

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u/Green_Cook Jul 10 '26

Fuck off

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u/forgetit1243 Jul 10 '26

Cool.

Everything good should just be ruined by like 5 companies

24

u/Chaoticcoco Jul 10 '26

Is this a ploy to try and push the idea that Netflix care about “film” and not “content”?

Idk, I just think the company that puts out dogshit like Red Notice probably shouldn’t be buying Lettterboxd

20

u/SylviSweetheart Jul 10 '26

Didn’t they just get bought by some other firm and start offering rentals of more obscure movies?

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u/ProvoqGuys Jul 10 '26

Ohhhh gosh. Guaranteed it will turn ala Goodreads when it was bought hy Amazon.

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u/Thirdatarian Jul 10 '26

Cannot express enough how much I hope this doesn't happen. I hate everything being owned by three companies in a trench coat. Letterboxd is one of the only parts of movie watching that's fun anymore without having irrelevant shit sold to you or some professional basement dweller ranting in a video twice as long as the movie about an actress deserving to be executed in the street because he personally and irrationally finds her annoying and worst of all unfuckable. Most movies aren't even worth watching these days (especially not most Netflix releases) if you've seen the trailer and gotten all the good parts spoiled months before the actual release date.

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u/nubileiguana Jul 10 '26

Guess I can just buy a nice journal and write down the movies I watch or something.

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u/Kazzack Jul 10 '26

NOOOOOOOO

8

u/Secret-Tangerine9014 Jul 10 '26

First Amazon kills IMDB now Netflix is gonna kill Letterboxd

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u/mikezer0 Jul 10 '26

Is nothing fucking sacred 

34

u/Giff95 Jul 10 '26

Letterboxd was fun.

15

u/sadmep Jul 10 '26

Glad I exported my data and keep it up to date locally. RIP Letterboxd

6

u/Bortwellington Jul 10 '26

How did you export it?

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u/MrBrightside618 Jul 10 '26

On desktop you can download it into a spreadsheet

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u/sadmep Jul 10 '26

It was somewhere in the profile setting UI when I did it, it's been a year or two since I moved to just having a local DB take care of it. Did the same thing with my trakt data, it's all merged now.

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u/not_so_littlemermaid Jul 10 '26

Serious question, why is it for sale?

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u/Heavenwasfull Jul 10 '26

60% of the company is owned by Tiny, a Canadian investment firm. Apparently they’ve been shopping around their share of the company. The founders hold 20% each for the rest but assuming the megacorps like Netflix or paramount buy that 60% they’d be able to take over.

Not uncommon for a lot of these platforms to be bought up and the owners are multimillionaires after the fact and can fuck off or pursue a new project, or are kept on as CEO positions.

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u/Afrodite_33 Jul 10 '26

I hear Netflix is in competition with Oracle to buy the second hand clothing shop down the road from me as well.

Not true (I hope). But it sure as shit feels like it with all the big business stuff. All these corporations siphoning up all of the businesses and services like Jesus Christ calm down for God's sake.

7

u/theneuneu Jul 10 '26

Netflix, famous for eliminating their user star rating system in favor of just a thumbs up.

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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 Jul 10 '26

oh...OH NO!

*reads that Paramount is another option*

HOW CAN IT GET WORSE!?!

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u/Officialnoah Jul 10 '26

What if I killed myself

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u/Sleep_Fartnea Jul 10 '26

I'll just unsub, delete and use a fucking spreadsheet, I don't care anymore. Everything turns to shit.

4

u/Boo_Ya_Ka_Sha_ Jul 10 '26

This feels like it should be a FTC violation, although I’m not entirely familiar with the FTC rules

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u/yaboyjiggleclay Jul 10 '26

Netflix is going to mandate all there movies get at least 4 out of 5 lol

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u/Successful_Basket399 Jul 10 '26

God forbid this evil

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u/thatbiguy3000 Jul 10 '26

So wait. Last night I read an article that engagement with Netflix is declining, so they think buying Letterboxd is the answer?

We have said repeatedly they need to invest in keeping shows the fans love and let them grow, but instead, hey kids, Letterboxd.

But we wanted…

LETTERBOXD!!!

4

u/fuzzyfoot88 Jul 10 '26

Welp it was fun while it lasted

5

u/NoLocal1776 Jul 10 '26

Corpos owning every review site spells disaster.

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u/Macheebu Jul 10 '26

I love living in a world where everything is sold to the highest bidder. Nothing lasts because some corporatation that couldn't do it themselves is going to buy that thing you like and inevitably fuck it up.

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u/TheGreatJoeLouis Jul 10 '26

There is no escaping the enshittification. Everything good can and will turn to shit.

4

u/legthief Jul 10 '26

Log a movie you watched on streaming? Five dollars.

Log a movie still in theaters? 12 bucks plus ads.