“One Battle After Another” (2025)

Why the Future of the Movies Lives on Letterboxd

By Alexandra Kleeman

Feb. 3, 2026

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watching isn’t enough i need to personally lead a revolution

theo

it’s like finding nemo if the dad was a stoner, alcoholic, and woke

mikko

single-handedly the greatest portrayal of crashing out when you forget your password

Preet

Karl von Randow and Matthew Buchanan created Letterboxd in 2011, but its popularity ballooned during the pandemic. It has grown exponentially ever since: Between 2020 and 2026, it grew to 26 million users from 1.7 million, adding more than nine million users since January 2025 alone. It’s not the only movie-rating platform out there: Rotten Tomatoes has become a fixture of movie advertising, with “100% Fresh” ratings emblazoned on movie posters and TV ads. But if Rotten Tomatoes has become a tool of Hollywood’s homogenizing marketing machinery, Letterboxd is something else: a cinephilic hive buzzing with authentic enthusiasm and heterogeneous tastes.