Netflix rumoured to buy Letterboxd: what happens when your film diary becomes studio data?

The funny one-liner reviews, the top four favourite films format, the ability to follow and connect with fellow film lovers on an app entirely dedicated to logging, ranking and reviewing movies. It's hard to remember what it was like to watch a film without wanting to run straight to Letterboxd as soon as the credits roll, documenting your spiralling thoughts. So, what happens when an app that has become the average film viewer's go-to film diary is potentially monopolised by the world's most popular streaming service?

Invented in New Zealand back in 2011 by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, what began as a fairly self-contained film cataloguing app has gradually come to cement itself within the cultural zeitgeist, with the social platform now having over 30 million users as of July 2026. The streamlined nature of Letterboxd grants users the ability to freely share their film-focused opinions and, particularly due to its large Gen Z demographic, the app has even been accredited with "saving cinema" by accelerating film watching appetites and encouraging more critical engagement with a wide range of movies. The app not only focuses on showcasing new releases but independent and lesser known films all throughout cinema history, with the Letterboxd ‘Video Store’ feature promoting the rental of a more diverse range of indie films.

Due to its global popularity and net worth of around $250 million, it is understandable why Letterboxd has captured the interest of a titan of the film industry such as Netflix, with talks about a change in ownership having began in July. However, the ramifications of Letterboxd being purchased by a streaming service who very nearly bought Warner Bros, before the deal fell through earlier this year - a move which would have narrowed the windows in which films were exclusively debuted in cinemas before landing on the streaming platforms and was acknowledged as being an exponential threat to the survival of movie theatres - feels as though it could mark a detrimental shift in the app's nature, purpose and demographic.

Whilst it could be argued that using people's ratings and reflections to inform the future of film would mark a positive shift in catering towards the appetites of film viewers, it really undermines what the purpose of film is - bringing a filmmaker's creative vision to life in a manner which challenges, endears and compels audiences to think deeper about its messaging and themes, regardless of how large its reception will be. By using data from an app on which people publish their personal thoughts, undermines the app's entire original purpose, and could shift Letterboxd into becoming a marketing tool that solely benefit production studio interests.

Crucially, it begs the question of what would happen when a bad review was published about a Netflix original movie or project. There would almost definitely be censorship of low-starred reviews to protect such releases, as well as a possible oversaturation of positive reviews in the interest of promotion. It would boil down film watching appetites into a quantitive basis as opposed to caring about lesser known quality films with smaller fan bases and almost certainly overturn features such as the Letterboxd Video Store in order to place Netflix releases centre stage. For an app dedicated to freedom of thought and engagement with all manners of film, its ownership by a major streaming service like Netflix would fundamentally change the app as it is currently known and loved, almost certainly for the worst. 

Whilst at this point in time the talks of Netflix purchasing Letterboxd remain fairly under wraps, as does the specificities of Letterboxd’s stance on the purchase, it poses a concerning question for the future of both cinema and opinions-based social platforms. It feels as though corners of the internet where users can openly share their opinions free from surveillance or feeding data systems are increasingly shrinking, a notion which makes the current format of Letterboxd feel all the more valuable. Whilst the future of the app remains uncertain, one thing that the widespread popularity of Letterboxd shows us is that there is a healthy film-watching appetite across the globe for new and old films alike and users will not blindly succumb to studio interests without a fight.