Listen now on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.
Perhaps you’ve seen some news about Letterboxd in the last few weeks — that a majority stake is up for sale. The studios (and other regulars) are circling. But there’s also another buyer looking for a seat at the table. Elizabeth Joyce is an economist, a screenwriter, and the founder of Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative, a public benefit corporation plus plus — essentially Intrinsic has papered an alternative business model, which Elizabeth invented alongside a team of folks at Harvard. This model allows Intrinsic to be owned in part by its community (filmmakers and film fans). She launched a Seed&Spark campaign to raise the first tranche of funds needed to secure Intrinsic as a prospective buyer of Letterboxd. As of just a few days ago that campaign has exceeded it’s goal!
In our conversation (recorded last Friday 7/17/26), we discuss:
Why Letterboxd is so important for independent filmmakers
Research around Letterboxd engagement and marketing spend
How filmmakers can utilize Letterboxd for marketing right now
Why “write a low-budget horror film” is a distribution problem disguised as creative advice
The lifecycle of a private equity acquisition
The business model Elizabeth co-invented and why it’s the right structure for Letterboxd
And more!
Kinema for Filmmakers is a newsletter about creative film distribution. This is a recap of our latest podcast episode.
Key Takeaways:
The average commercially successful independent film is spending 240% of its production budget on marketing. Letterboxd offers an alternative:
“If you look at independent films that have high engagement on Letterboxd, they achieve commercial success at substantially lower marketing spends.”
On Anora: “Sean Baker made it for around $6 million, and then Neon spent $18 million marketing that film. Those are not numbers that the average independent filmmaker can compete with.”
On Hundreds of Beavers: “That was made for $150,000 and they spent $2,500 marketing on Letterboxd and paid ads on Letterboxd.” (They did other stuff too. Check out the case study in the references section below for a complete picture of their marketing efforts but, to Elizabeth’s point, it amounted to far less than 240% of their prod budget.)
“On Letterboxd we have an audience of cinephiles who are highly motivated and are then going on their own and creating additional word of mouth campaigns.”
Letterboxd is a research tool filmmakers can use right now:
“If I were anyone launching my film on Kinema soon or in the future, what I would be doing would be going on Letterboxd:
finding comparable films
writing reviews
reading other people’s reviews of those films
creating lists
create a list of films that are in sort of the vibe of your film.
start building a following on Letterboxd
use it as a public data source
read reviews of films that you think people who are interested in this film will be interested in yours
read what resonated with them about that film”
Letterboxd is important:
“Letterboxd is so important to the independent film industry because over 15 years they have aggregated 30 million global cinephiles in one place that love film, that celebrate film, that promote film, that create these organic word of mouth marketing campaigns just because they love cinema.”
“There isn’t an easy replacement for it. Some people say, ‘Well, why not just build another one?’ You could do it, but the founders have put 15 years in with this specific focus.”
“It’s not just about [Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative]. It’s about everyone on the ladder. It’s about the impact that [corporate acquisition] will have on everyone in an industry that is already really hurting.”
Being dependent on donors or investors creates the same problem:
“When I was working in nonprofits, we bumped up against the problem over and over of funders deciding after a period of time that maybe their interests had changed. They were ready to move on to something else.”
“Whether it is the interests of a donor or the political environment that we find ourselves in right now where grant funding is entirely different than it was 10 years ago, those are challenges that can upend an organization.”
Private equity is a structure problem:
“Any private equity company is looking for a pretty quick turnaround on profits.”
“They’re also using the slate model, which is that they’re assuming that if they invest in 10 companies that five of them are going to fail completely, four of them are going to either break even or be a little bit profitable, and one of them is going to hit it out of the park.”
“Anytime your first and foremost priority is maximizing your return to shareholders…your job actually ends up demanding that you’re optimizing for this fast return to investors.”
“Flipping businesses, whether it’s in the housing market or in entrepreneurship, does not lead to good sustainable long-term outcomes.”
A public benefit corporation gives you the ‘legal backbone’ to prioritize mission alongside profit:
“The benefit of being a public benefit corporation is that it’s written in your bylaws from day one that you have the legal ability to prioritize social mission over just returning profit to shareholders.”
“It gives you the legal backbone essentially to be able to say, we’re going to make choices sometimes that might impact profitability, and we’re making them because they’re aligned with our social mission. It doesn’t mean that you’re not seeking profitability. It just means you have that option.”
The Seed&Spark campaign is step one:
“The fastest way for us to jump into this race was to do a crowdfunding campaign where we’re not selling securities, we’re not selling equity.”
The funds cover legal fees among other administrative requirements.
Intrinsic will soon run an equity crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder
Elizabeth recently wrote, “we remain open to contributions of donated labor for anyone who has followed along but not felt able to pledge.” Find more ways to get involved here.
Where to Find Elizabeth:
Substack: Elizabeth Joyce
Seed&Spark: https://seedandspark.com/fund/buyletterboxd#story
In this episode, we cover:
(0:19) Introduction
(1:04) Elizabeth’s background
(4:08) Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative
(8:14) Why optimizing for fast profit is not good
(10:02) Why “write a low-budget horror film” is a distribution problem
(11:22) Intrinsic’s platform, Community Center
(13:38) Ownership vs. tech platforms
(16:38) Class A and Class B stock explained
(20:47) Intrinsic’s Letterboxd campaign
(25:39) Why Letterboxd is important
(28:03) Ways to utilize Letterboxd right now
(29:12) How to join the Seed&Spark campaign (ends July 26th; Wefunder equity round to follow)
Referenced:
Community Center:
Seed&Spark Campaign: https://seedandspark.com/fund/buyletterboxd#story
Anora marketing spend: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/06/anora-spent-18m-on-marketing-three-times-its-budget
Hundreds of Beavers Case Study:
If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and consider subscribing if you haven’t already.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.